Woman Tears Up After Appraiser Shares The Real Value Of Her Grandma's Painting
It looked like the kind of painting you’d see on the wall of your local library, or maybe even your dentist’s office. The piece was unassuming, naturalistic; some might have described it as “ordinary.” Even Rose, the woman who owned the painting, thought it was just something that looked good on her grandmother’s wall. But when she brought it to Antiques Roadshow, Rose confronted a hidden truth that made her question everything she knew about her grandmother, her family’s past, and her own future.
An unusual heirloom
Though most families pass down vintage pearls or delicate furniture, Rose’s ancestors passed down this artwork. That may sound a little odd, but according to Rose, the print of a Native American tribe leisurely walking down a mountainside “always hung right above [my grandmother’s] bed.” For years, she barely paid any attention to it.
Rose's theory
Why did Rose’s grandmother attach such sentimental value to what seemed to be a reproduction of an ordinary painting? Even Rose wasn’t sure where the piece came from, or why her grandmother loved it so much, but she was able to come up with a theory — albeit an unusual one.
Hesitant to investigate
“Her dad, I’m guessing, would’ve given it to her after she spent the summer at a dude ranch when she was 19,” Rose suggested. Based on family history, she guessed that her grandma got the print sometime in the 1940s. There was a date on the painting as well, but Rose was hesitant to investigate.
A nerve-wracking incident
She wasn’t even sure if the work was indeed a painting or merely a reproduction. Rose couldn’t have known it then, but the difference in value of a painting compared to a print could have been thousands of dollars — perhaps more. Rose had always assumed it wasn't an original, but a nerve-racking incident planted a seed of doubt in her mind.
