Antiques Roadshow

GUEST: I felt like I was in convulsions (laughing) when you told me what the price was.

(chuckles) I was going... (laughs) HOST: At the Albuquerque ROADSHOW in 2014, Debra Force met a guest named Carol who brought in a mysterious painting called The Answer that posed some intriguing questions.

But what happened afterwards has left a smile on everyone's face.

GUEST: In... golly, I guess it was 1963, I did my junior year in Madrid, Spain.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: And I lived right close to the Joaqun Sorolla Museum in Madrid.

APPRAISER: Mm-hm.

GUEST: I just fell in love with this.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

GUEST: Because it reminded me of Joaqun Sorolla.

APPRAISER: Oh, how wonderful.

GUEST: You know, the-the light and the-- Spain, and, and... so I just fell in love with her.

And I've lived with her for, golly, almost 50 years.

APPRAISER: Jane Peterson did not really paint figure works like this.

Some of her best-known pieces were done on the piers in New England on Gloucester and areas like that, but she rarely focuses on just one sitter.

It was just overall an exciting work.

The label on the back tells us the title, and it's called The Answer, and it's very mysterious.

I guess she's perhaps writing an answer to someone.

GUEST: It almost looks like her beads have broken.

APPRAISER: Yea- They do, they do.

It looks like the chain is broken.

GUEST: I was wondering if she was so pensive that maybe she was writing a Dear John letter or maybe she had received a Dear what, whoever her name is.

APPRAISER: Whatever.

GUEST: (laughs) APPRAISER: Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

The owner, Carol, was very excited about this painting, and she kept referring to the painting as Jane, meaning for Jane Peterson.

So it was, it was quite charming, and we, we hit it off, actually, quite well.

Carol is, is going to arrive shortly and I'm very excited to see her, to talk about this painting, which was so near and dear to her heart.

You said you purchased it unframed, did you not?

GUEST: Yes.

As I recall, I paid $150 for it.

APPRAISER: $150?

I think that a gallery in New York would be asking $300,000.

GUEST: Where's a chair?

(both laugh) Now I need that chair.

GUEST (voiceover): Knowing the value, it was almost disturbing.

I finally talked to my children, and I said, "I've always loved this painting.

"I know you've lived with it all your life.

Do you want it?"

And they said, "Gee, Mom, no, I don't think so," given what, what the value was."

So I called Debra, right?

APPRAISER: Yes.

GUEST: I picked up the phone and went-- (pleading): "Debra!"

(both laugh) "Help!"

APPRAISER: I was very excited to hear from her, because I loved this painting.

After I did the, the spot in Albuquerque, I had no idea that I would be called by Carol, to, uh, to talk about selling the painting.

We sold it close to our $300,000 mark.

I have colleagues who have sold some of the Gloucester pictures for this amount of money or more.

But this would be the most valuable Peterson that I have-- I've ever sold.

GUEST: My son, who lives in Albuquerque, we were taking a walk, and we saw... these fields of the geese... APPRAISER: Mm.

GUEST: ...and they were like open fields in the North Valley.

There was property for sale.

It was a total of three acres.

"Jane" actually helped me purchase land and build a house, where I'm living now.

APPRAISER: That's wonderful.

GUEST: I love the painting, but, ya know, you can't take it with ya.

May she live a very long time.

APPRAISER: Yeah, exactly.

GUEST: You know, I'm sure she will.

She will certainly outlast us.

(laughing) APPRAISER: Yeah.

That's true.