'Antiques Roadshow' guest says 'oh my goodness' after expert revealed the value of his 1896 painting
Family heirlooms hold immense sentimental value for guests who bring them to “Antiques Roadshow,” but while the monetary value they find out is more than their expectations, some items are also historically significant. One such item was a painting by Frederick Remington, which expert Colleene Fesko saw being mishandled by a man. Not only did she intervene to save the painting from damage, but she also went on to appraise it for more than $800,000. But later, the item got a record-breaking appraisal when Fesko revised its valuation to more than $1 million.
In a special episode of the PBS show "Extraordinary Finds," Fesko shared that the expensive painting was brought to the show by an elderly guest who had no idea how to handle it. "He had this painting and a cardboard box. And he kept pulling it up and down, and I noticed that there was a foam core in front of it, and every time he pulled it up, I would see more and more of that magnificent sky. Finally, I said, 'get the painting out of that box and stop putting it back in and out of that box before you get it damaged,' and he did," she shared.
In the original episode, the guest thanked the expert for the advice and went on to share the backstory of it."Well, Lea Febiger was my great-grandfather. This is the gentleman in the painting, and he was a friend of Frederick Remington who in 1896 painted his portrait as part of a military series in El Paso," he told Fesko. The appraiser explained that Remington was one of the most important Western artists of the century. "He didn't have a tremendous amount of training but a natural instinct for the vitality and the style of the west, and this portrait is a terrific example of that," she said. She further noted that the special thing about the portrait was that it came with a letter from the artist.
"The letter was Remington speaking to the sitter and how much he enjoyed their time together, and there was a lot of meat in it, which is, which is really what you want. There was no anonymity to it at all, it was personal for Remington and it was personal for the sitter," she noted. She further explained that Remington had the painting in his home at the time of his death, and the guest's family tracked the item down and got it back. The guest shared that he got the painting appraised before in the 1960s, and at the time, it fetched a value of about $7,500. "Well, the years have been kind to you and Frederic Remington," Fesko told the guest. She added that the letter alone was now worth at least $2,000, leaving the guest in shock.
Coming to the painting, Fesko said, "He really is an iconic figure in American painting, and this piece, with the very dashing figure, the beautiful shadow, the abstracted landscape behind, it's really a wonderful example of Remington's work at the turn of the century. And this piece, together with the letter, would be something that I would value at auction between $600,000 and $800,000." This nearly knocked the guest out of his boots, and he could only say, "Oh my goodness! I was hoping I would be wildly exuberant, I am!"
Later in the update, Fesko revised her appraisal to over 1.2 million dollars. Sadly, when the update was filmed, the expert was alone, and the fans couldn't see the reaction of the owner.
