A guest on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow was left speechless after a “scary” 1,000-year-old item he bought for just £40 received a staggering valuation.
The latest episode of the BBC series came from Derry, Northern Ireland, as guests brought their treasures to examine.
Expert Ronnie Archer-Morgan stunned a guest during Sunday’s episode when he valued his “scary” statue at between £1,000 and £2,000.
Described as a “scary guy” by Ronnie, the guest had brought a small statue which was believed to date from the 11th or 12th century.
The guest revealed he bought the goblin-like statue at an online auction and only paid £40 for it. So he was shocked when Ronnie revealed his true worth.
A guest on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow was left speechless after a “scary” 1,000-year-old item he bought for just £40 received a stunning valuation during Sunday’s episode.
Expert Ronnie Archer-Morgan stunned a guest on Sunday’s episode by pricing his “scary” statue at between £1,000 and £2,000.
“I know some things about him, but I found him on an online auction site,” the guest said of the research he did on the statue. “He was fun and very interesting.
“His facial expressions…I’ve never seen anything like that before. Its fangs, eyes, and protruding eyeballs. I just thought the details fascinated me, you know? So I did some research and it seems to indicate that it came from Java.
Ronnie nodded, confirming that the guest’s research was going in the right direction and said: “I believe it was dated to maybe the 11th or 12th century, but I’m not sure.”
“Maybe we should trade places,” Ronnie joked, visibly impressed by the guest’s knowledge of the statue’s origins.
“You’re right about a lot of these things,” Ronnie continued. “This is the Javanese name, the god of the underworld.
“So he’s responsible for eclipses and everyone is afraid of eclipses and thinks they’re going to lose the sun or the moon.”
Ronnie added, “He was sent to us to keep humans in their mythology, but instead of keeping humans in line, he started eating people.”
“Okay, that’s pretty interesting,” the guest replied, to which Ronnie asked, “But we don’t know if it’s real or not, do we?” We need to be sure it’s real.
Described as a “scary man” by Ronnie, the guest had brought a small statue believed to date from the 11th or 12th century.
The guest revealed he bought the goblin-like statue at an online auction and only paid £40 to acquire it. So he was shocked when Ronnie revealed his true worth.
While inspecting the statue, Ronnie explained that it was almost a millennium old. “We are in the 11th or 12th century,” he explained.
Ronnie then asked the guest, “So what did you pay for online?” to which the guest replied “I paid a whopping £40”.
“An auction value for this would be between £1,000 and £2,000,” Ronnie replied, as guests’ eyes widened in disbelief.
“Wow, that’s fantastic,” he replied.
It comes after viewers were left in hysterics during the same episode when a woman sought a review for her innuendo-laden ‘muff string’.
The woman revealed to expert Joanna Hardly that the gold chain had been in her family since the 1950s, when her aunt picked it up from an antique store.
Joanna then revealed that it was almost 200 years old, saying: “It’s a belcher link chain or we call it a muff chain” and that it would have been attached to the fur hand warmer of a lady.
Antiques Roadshow viewers were left hysterical when a woman asked for a review for her innuendo-laden ‘muff chain’ on Sunday
The final episode of the BBC series came from Derry, on the North Island, as guests brought their treasures and one lady was told her jewels were worth thousands of pounds.
Before leaving the guest stunned when she concluded the item was so popular the item could probably fetch £5,000 at auction.
However, the name left some cheeky viewers in fits of laughter, with one writing on X: “Someone brought a chain of muffs and a reader, I’m laughing.”
While a second said: ‘Okay, you’ve got my attention.’
A third joked: “I googled it in anticipation and was disappointed.”
And: ‘A chain of muffs, you say?’