'Antiques Roadshow' guest left stunned after hearing the value of her World War II cat portrait

The guest had received it from a cousin, who had bought it in Paris during World War II.

PUBLISHED 2 HOURS AGO

The guest's reaction at a big appraisal (Cover image source: YouTube | Antiques Roadshow)

"Antiques Roadshow" stands out largely because of the way that guests react after getting an appraisal for their items, which is usually higher than their expectations. Even when people walk in with things that seem to have historical value or contain precious materials, they are left stunned by the expert's valuation. So when a guest realised that a cat portrait that she had was worth a fortune, she was bound to be shocked. The guest said that the painting was from France and was acquired by a cousin who went there during World War II.

The guest also revealed that her cousin had paid a few hundred bucks for it at the time, which was not a small amount of money. However, since the guest was not a cat lover, she said that the painting had been sitting on her porch for 15 years. It was made by Théophile Steinlen, a contemporary artist who had moved to France in the late 1800s.

Screenshot showing the picture. (Image credit: YouTube | Antiques Roadshow PBS) — Screenshot showing the picture. (Image source: YouTube | Antiques Roadshow PBS)

He was a friend of the popular poster artist Toulouse-Lautrec and had moved to Paris from Switzerland during the 1880s. He started working as an illustrator and then gained fame as a poster artist. Steinlen illustrated pictures of workers and those downtrodden with a strong social agenda. However, he was much more popularly known for his posters of Parisian nightclubs and theater programs.

This particular painting of a cat was not a poster, since it was something he had done with one of his own cats as models. However, the expert then revealed that it wasn’t actually a painting either. It was a color lithograph. “He made this in an edition of several hundred in 1909. And it’s actually a companion piece to another cat, which is an inside cat known as the winter car. You have the summer car,” the expert explained.

Screenshot showing the artist's signature. (Image credit: YouTube | Antiques Roadshow PBS) — Screenshot showing the artist's signature. (Image source: YouTube | Antiques Roadshow PBS)

While the lithograph seemed to be in great condition, there were some issues regarding the framing of the picture. “It’s not good to have a print pushed up to a piece of glass like this. It would be much better off to have it taken out of this frame and put it in a mat so the print itself isn’t touching the glass,” the expert added.

Screenshot showing the expert Todd Weyman. (Image credit: YouTube | Antiques Roadshow PBS)

Due to the print being pushed up against the glass, some faint marks of humidification had appeared on the print, which was not the best news. However, it did not mean that the lithograph was not valuable. The expert said that a replacement or retail value for the item would be around $10,000 to $12,000. “I’m stunned,” the guest said upon hearing the valuation. She even said she'd started loving cats.