'Antiques Roadshow' guest struggled to breathe after expert revealed the value of his painting

"Antiques Roadshow" has unearthed several masterpieces in the long run, but rarely does a painting give the experts a hard time. This happened when an unidentified guest showed up on the BBC show with a painting he claimed to be from the famed British artist, David Hockney. The show's expert, Rupert Maas, who first questioned the painting's authenticity, eventually came around to deliver a breathtaking appraisal. 

An astonishing find with a great 'family story'

Given the significance of the painting, Maas began by asking the guest about the origin of the piece, as he had a hard time believing it was from Hockney. “In this case, your picture says it's by David Hockney. This is not at all what I’m used to seeing by David Hockney," he noted. He added that Hockney is one of Britain's leading modern painters, so the guest needed to make his case. 

The painting’s owner shared that it was his grandfather who got the painting after he met a young Hockney while working at a train station in 1957.  “My grandfather saw two young artists on the platform when he was a signalman in a tiny station called Trimley St. Mary between Felixstowe and Ipswich. He noticed their equipment and invited them into the signal box and gave them a cup of tea," he explained. 

The man further shared that his grandfather eventually invited the two artists for a Sunday brunch because they were living in tough circumstances and asked them to bring a painting each for him to buy. "A year later, he brandished a piece of paper showing one of these guys [Hockney] had won the gold medal from the Royal College of Art. It's a Hockney; that's my case," the guest said. 

Hockney, who is now 85, is one of the most popular and recognized painters of his generation, according to Artnet. His best-known works include some of the twentieth century’s most iconic depictions of Southern California, such as Peter Getting Out of Nick’s Pool (1966) and A Bigger Splash (1967). 

Thus, the show's expert noted that he had been "initially incredulous" about the painting, but his research showed that there was merit to the story. He confirmed that Hockney had been in the area in 1957 with fellow Bradford Art College student John Loker, who must have been the other painter to give the guest's grandfather a painting. 

The expert explained that the pair were staying in the area as they admired John Constable, a Suffolk landscape painter. "They made a pilgrimage, and it turned out to be a wonderful place to paint - hence this meeting with your grandfather, which is quite extraordinary," Maas noted.  “But it’s pre-abstract expressionism, pre-all of that, so it’s almost juvenilia, you might say,” he added. 

The expert questioned if the other painting was of similar colors, to which the guest said it was, and he believed it was because they were broken and only had access to a few colors in their palette. Pointing to the "wobbly signature," the expert noted that it was roughly sawn into a frame. The guest admitted that it was his mother who did that. “Mother had a frame, so she just trimmed it around the edges so that it fitted into the frame," he explained. Coming to the numbers, the appraiser asked the owner if he had any idea about the value of the painting. The guest said that he believed it to be worth around £10,000 (~$12,900). However, Maas was about to take his breath away. 

The expert told the guest that he was right, but according to him, the value would be around “£20,000-£30,000," (~$25,000 to $38,000). The guest, who was out of breath, bent over in disbelief as a woman behind him told him to just "say thank you." “Thank you for that information," the guest said to Maas with a smile. 

The expert noted that Hockney is one of the most recognizable painters in the world, and since the painting was so different from his typical works, he had to question its authenticity at first.