Antiques Roadshow guest almost 'binned' painting worth thousands until son stopped her

WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Antiques Roadshow.

An Antiques Roadshow guest nearly “binned” a painting which turned out to be worth a small fortune.

The daytime series travelled to Greenwich to film on the stunning grounds of Eltham Palace so specialists could value an array of and wonderful items.

Among those experts was Amin Jaffer who met with a guest who wasn’t exactly thrilled by the piece of art that she brought in to be appraised.

He began: “Am I right in saying that you wanted to get rid of this work of art?”

She confirmed: “I did. I suggested it to my son, and he said: ‘Well, let’s check it out first.’ and he checked it out, I think, with SOAS.

“They said ‘no, it’s a possibility it’s a Jamini Roy’ and he said ‘hang onto it mm.’ So I did.”

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Jaffer replied: “Well, good decision. SOAS, of course, is the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, which is one of the centres of learning Asian art.

“Indeed, as you’ve said, this is a painting by Jamini Roy, who’s considered a modern master of Indian painting.

“Jamini Roy believed in the popularisation of art, he didn’t believe that art should just be for elites.

“So he painted in a style that was very accessible to everyone, and I don’t know if you know much of his story, but Jamini Roy came from an affluent family.

“[He] went to arts school in the early 20th Century and he was painting like a European painter, oil on canvas, impressionist kind of work.

“It was the time when Indian Nationalists believed that India should be ruled by Indians.

“And this expression, this political expression, was felt in every aspect of Indian identity, so artists like Jamini Roy stopped painting oil on canvas and started painting with traditional Indian medium, watercolour on paper.

“And instead of copying Western artists, Western art school traditions, he went to traditional tribal folk art traditions from Bengal, which is where he originated.”

The expert continued: “After that time in the early 1920s, his paintings really revolve around native scenes, so these are very, very typical Indian scenes executed in a naive folk way with a real economy of line.

“And for this reason, he is seen as a modern master of art in India because he was able to distil quite complicated subjects into really simple elegant forms.”

He then added: “So you have something rather important on your hands, in other words.”

The guest laughed: “Right, well, I’m quite glad I didn’t bin it then!”

When she was asked how the painting came to be in her possession, she told him: “Well my godmother actually gave it to my son, it belongs to my son in fact, when he was about eight.

“And when he came back from travelling a few years ago, I said to him ‘I’m a bit fed up with this, maybe we should get rid of it?’

“And that’s when he decided he would look it up.”

It was then time for the appraisal, with Jaffer concluding: “Well, I would say in an auction of South Asian modern and contemporary art, it would probably start with an estimate of like £4,000 to £6,000.”

The guest pulled a face before laughing: “Ah. Well. Don’t judge me as an art collector then!”

Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.