BBC Antiques Roadshow guest left blown away after £18 painting receives eye-watering valuation

Antiques Roadshow is known for leaving people catching their breath over shocking valuations but one hopeful couldn't believe her luck after almost giving a painting away for free

An Antiques Roadshow guest was lost for words after almost giving a painting away for free – not knowing its real value.

During a recent instalment of the BBC programme which visited Cromford Mills, Derbyshire, expert Lawrence Hendra met up with a guest who was chancing her luck with a painting. The guest arrived with a rather unique painting which turned out to have a very interesting back story, leaving Lawrence taken aback.

"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," he said. The guest went on to explain that she bought the painting in a large collection of others along with prints.

However, she didn't actually want all of the paintings and prints that came in the bundle. "I was going to take them to a charity shop," she said. The guest continued: "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." When asked what she was initially drawn to about the painting, she added: "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."

Exploring the painting, expert Lawrence said: "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." Lawrence went on to explain that Pili Pili's art had been extremely popular and was also collected by the Belgium Royal Family.

"Good job I didn't give it away!" exclaimed the guest before explaining she had paid £18 around six years ago. "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," she said.

But Lawrence left her completely blown away when he revealed the true value of the original artwork, explaining he wouldn't be surprised if it fetched between £3,000 to £5,000 at auction. "No!" the guest exclaimed as she struggled to get her head around the bombshell news.

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