'Pawn Stars' boss Rick Harrison offers woman $20,000 for an 'ugly' statue gifted by her former in-laws
“Pawn Stars” is a platform where guests don't just get to know the real value of seemingly insignificant items or collections, but can instantly negotiate a lucrative deal as well. At times, the celebrity pawn shop owner, Rick Harrison, fails to bag rare items considered Holy Grails, but there are also times when he is left in doubt about things that he does end up buying. Something like that happened when a woman arrived with a statue from her former in-laws, which she simply wanted to get rid of, because she found it ugly. “I’d like to get rid of it just like I got rid of them,” she said, according to a report in The US Sun. Although Harrison took it off her hands, he instantly questioned his own decision.
The sculpture was made by ML Snowden, one of the most successful artists in her line of work. Harrison seemed a little surprised after hearing how the guest felt about the sculpture. “It sounds like you’re a little bit bitter,” he said. However, he also acknowledged that Snowden's pieces weren’t for everyone to appreciate.
It’s not what some may call a traditional work of art. Rather, it was abstract. Harrison, however, liked the piece and wanted it for himself. He would have called in an expert to figure out what the sculpture was worth, but unfortunately, his guy was out of town at the time. So, without wasting a lot of time, the pawn shop owner went straight to business and asked how much the guest wanted for it.
She initially said $50,000, which made the pawn store owner ponder. Snowden’s sculptures hold a lot of value, and the guest’s asking price might have been fair. However, it was still a lot of money, and the businessman in Harrison did not want to pay that kind of money without negotiating. After a while, he said that he was willing to pay $20,000 for it. To his surprise, she immediately agreed on the price, which took Harrison by surprise. “Whoa,” he said. “That was easy.” Such a quick deal made him ask himself if he had overpaid the owner. The guest also had no idea about the sculpture’s true value and thought that she would only get $5,000 for it when she walked in.
Harrison then called for his son Corey and co-worker Chum Lee to help him move the statue. Neither of them was impressed upon seeing it. Abstract art, after all, is not for everyone. Upon hearing that his father had paid $20,000 for it, Corey said, “Why? No one’s going to buy it.” Lee added a snide comment as well. “Your dad just bought it,” he said.
Harrison wasn’t best pleased with their reaction and called in an expert just to prove them wrong. The expert, named Chad, said that the sculpture had a probable market value of $36,000. This was like vindication for Rick, but when Corey and Chum asked the expert if he’d buy it, the answer was, “No comprende.”
