Antiques Roadshow guest left speechless by huge value of £18 painting

An Antiques Roadshow guest was left speechless when she discovered the incredible value of her £18 painting she had almost donated to charity. 

This week, the cherished BBC series made its way to Cromford Mills, Derbyshire, where expert Lawrence Hendra met a guest who owned a rather intriguing piece of art. 

The expert was taken aback by the unexpected discovery as he pointed out: 'So of all the paintings I was not expecting to see here at Cromford Mills in Derbyshire, is a painting by an artist from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pili Pili Mulongoy.' 

The guest then explained her original plans for the painting by saying: 'I bought this painting with a job lot of other paintings and prints, I didn't want half of them so I was going to take them to a charity shop.

'I had this one in my arms and I noticed that it had got a signature and could tell that it was a real painting.

'I tried to do some research about it and it's been on my wall ever since.'

Upon hearing this, Lawrence asked the woman what specifically attracted her to the intriguing art piece. 

To which she expressed: 'I think you love it or you hate it and it's really lovely and colourful and I love the little antelope and I can appreciate how it's painted. I paint myself and I just really love it.' 

Delving deeper into the artwork's background, Lawrence elaborated: 'As you can see, it's signed on the bottom right, Pili Pili, and he came from a very working-class family, he trained as a plumber and a builder and then he fell under guidance of a French artist.'

'He went to a drawing school set up by him, he won a prize and thereafter, he managed to develop this style of painting that was uniquely his own and you see a lot of this very delicate, vertical colouring in his pictures.' 

'This is on canvas, water colours and oils, but they're often very flat in perspective.'

'The animals, which are the main features of his work, are often on the same picture plain as grass and sometimes forest-type backgrounds.'

He then revealed Pili Pili's art was 'very popular' and had even been collected by the Belgium Royal Family.

Branding it a 'good discovery' for the visitor, the guest chuckled and said: 'Good job I didn't give it away!'

Disclosing the price she paid, the guest revealed: 'I think I paid about £18 for it, it was only about six years ago.'

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'I had my eye on a print in this bundle of paintings and, as I say, I donated some to a local charity shop on the way home because I didn't want them all.' 

Pressing on, the expert said: 'But you kept this one crucially. Okay, well was it £18 well spent?'

'To be honest, if this were to go under the hammer today, I wouldn't be surprised to see it fetch between £3,000 to £5,000.'

The crowd gasped at the expert's shocking revelation and the owner exclaimed 'No!' in disbelief. 

She looked lost for words at first, stuttering and then giggling 'Okay. Thank you, Lawrence!' 

The specialist remarked with a nod of approval, 'You have a good eye', and quipped light-heartedly, 'I like it more now.' 

Antiques Roadshow continues on Sunday, November 17, on BBC1 at 8pm. 

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