antiques-roadshow

That awkward moment when a worthless piece of garbage is compared to a Picasso…

Via Independent.

Alvin Barr, an antiques broker from South Carolina, presented a glazed ‘grotesque face’ jug for appraisal in a recent episode of the show’s US version after finding it “covered with dirt, straw and chicken droppings” at a Eugene, Oregon estate sale.

“It speaks to me. It was saying: ‘I’m very unusual’, ‘I’m very different’,” he said, adding that he paid $300 dollars for it.

Much to Barr’s surprise, appraiser Stephen L Fletcher became excited by the item and began likening it to the masterpieces of Pablo Picasso. He dated the jug to the late 19th century and priced it at between $30,000 and $50,000.

Since the episode aired on 11 January, Fletcher’s estimation has been found to be wildly out. A viewer contacted Antiques Roadshow after recognising the pottery as the work of her friend, a horse trainer named Betsy Soule. Soule confirmed to local Eugene paper the Bend Bulletin that she had indeed sculpted the jug in a 1973 ceramics class….

Soule has said that she is now reconsidering a career in pottery after receiving widespread praise for her bizarre artwork.

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  1. Marie says:

    So ends my love affair with the Antiques Roadshow.

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