Antiques Roadshow

INTERVIEWER

So, Jay, you just got some big news about your masks. Recap what happened out there with Ted Trotta.

GUEST

Well, he told me that it was much older than I ever imagined. We don't know how the family came to this, for sure, at that time, but for 10 years of his service there, my great-grandfather had a strong relation with the local natives.

INTERVIEWER

Ted Trotta told you that these are worth about a quarter of a million dollars, is that right?

GUEST

I think I have to listen to the interview.

INTERVIEWER

You'll have to hear a playback.

GUEST

I told him that over and over because the numbers went by and I thought they were big.

INTERVIEWER

This is your wife, and she was watching in the green room. What was your reaction, ma'am?

GUEST 2

I was stunned.

GUEST

She's the researcher that helped put together the story and the provenance of our family, and the relations there, and the years. So, I was kinda quick-reading that before I went and met with Ted, to see what I interpreted what I thought these things were.

INTERVIEWER

Has anything you've learned today given you ideas about new plans you might make for these pieces after today?

GUEST

Well, I'll take very special care of them. It's amazing how they've endured what we've put them through in the last short years. And where they came from, they came from Alaska, back to the States, so they've traveled a lot of miles. And that's just amazing but it doesn't mean that we can continue to not give them a lot more care. It's a personal, to us and the family, not the value that we're looking at.