'Antiques Roadshow' guest gets a staggering appraisal for painting related to Jack the Ripper case

Jack the Ripper is one of the most mysterious and terrifying figures in history, and his legend draws attention from all corners of the world. So, when an item somewhat related to his gruesome murders committed by him came on the BBC version of “Antiques Roadshow,” it raised a lot of eyebrows. The item was the painting of a man who was with the police of the time and had worked on the murders.

The guest who brought the picture claimed that it was her great-great-grandfather, Doctor Thomas Bond. She revealed that he was a police surgeon and had worked on the Ripper cases. According to the guest’s husband, what Bond did at the time was kind of revolutionary when it came to solving gruesome crimes like murder. The painting was even made by a popular painter of that era, George Frederick Watts.

"He started to do what was thought to be the first medical profiling. There were some thoughts at the time that Jack the Ripper had medical knowledge or was a surgeon, and Doctor Thomas Bond was very clear that this was the work of someone that didn't have surgical skills,” the owner’s husband said, according to a report in Hello Magazine. The expert at the time was a historian named Lawrence Hendra.

He was fascinated by the story, much like everyone who had gathered to see the appraisal, and she also found the painting interesting. Watts had signed it on the bottom left corner and was usually not known for portraits like such. However, paintings on giant canvases made by the artist out of passion might not always put food on the table. So, it was not uncommon for a lot of artists to turn to portraiture to make some money.

"Of course, this isn't one of Watts' huge canvases, but actually, I think the sitter is really interesting,” Hendra said. "He was – like Watts was – a pioneer of his day. So, not that this work would ever be sold, but I think if this were to appear at auction, I would expect to see it sell for a figure in the region of $10,000 to $16,000."

The guest did not want to sell the picture, but they said that they were exploring the ways in which they could showcase the portrait to the world. After all, the man in the portrait was one of the people who worked on arguably one of the biggest serial killer cases of all time. “Fabulous, we shall have to look after it,” the guest said after learning the valuation.

“We’ve been talking, we’d probably like to get in touch with the Watts Gallery and probably see if they’d like to have it on loan for a bit. So, you know, just for the story and what have you there,” the guest’s husband added. The expert also said that sharing the picture with a wider audience would indeed be nice, given the painter and the story of the man in the painting.