The appraisals on Antiques Roadshow are done by real experts from various categories and tend to be very accurate even though the items rarely go up for sale.
Antiques Roadshow has always followed a similar format, with various experts appraising a variety of family heirlooms and antiques.
Though the show has experienced some controversies over the years, the appraisals on the show are generally regarded as accurate and reputable, since they are done by real experts in the field.
How does Antiques Roadshow work?
Attending auctions or antique shows might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but PBS’ Antiques Roadshow has turned this concept into a family-friendly reality show, which has been able to stand the test of time.
The original United Kingdom version of the show and PBS’s newer American version have both been on the air for more than two decades and they follow a similar format.
The Antiques Roadshow travels to different venues across the country and regular people show up to watch and to have their own antiques evaluated by the various appraisers who are part of the show.
How accurate are the Antiques Roadshow appraisals?
Antiques Roadshow may constitute a quiet evening alone for most of the households that tune in to watch the show regularly, but what actually happens on the day of filming is much more chaotic.
Marsha Bemko, an executive producer for the show, revealed a few unexpected details about Antiques Roadshow in a 2019 interview.
The reality is that when the Antique Roadshow rolls into town, the event organizers expect up to 3000 ticketholders to show up with up to two antiques each.
Though only about 150 to 175 of these ticketholders actually end up making it onto the show, the Antique Roadshow appraisers sort all of the antiques into general categories before examining and appraising each antique that was brought to the event.
Unfortunately, this high volume and huge variety of antiques that need to be sorted through with each new tour is exactly what has made viewers at home so skeptical about the accuracy of the appraisals through the years.
In general, the Antiques Roadshow appraisers come from a variety of respected institutions and are not paid as actors on the show.
These appraisers are widely considered to be some of the most respected in their fields and though the items appraised on the show are rarely sold on the retail market, their appraisals are considered to be fairly accurate, though they may seem inflated when only the best pieces are shown.
However, this does not mean that the show has not had one or two slip-ups or controversies through the years.
The Antiques Roadshow controversies
The American version of Antiques Roadshow has been on the air since 1997 and the appraisals on the show have certainly caused some outrage.
Most notably, Russ Pritchard III and his business partner, George Juno, who were both featured as appraisers on Antiques Roadshow, got caught up in a fraud case in 2001 for undervaluing military artifacts and using the reputation of the show to do so.
Later on, in 2016, it was discovered that a jug which had been valued at around $50,000 on the show, was actually a high school art project by artist Betsy Soule and thus, was worth considerably less.
Why are so few of the antiques sold on the retail market?
Interestingly enough, fans’ squabbles about whether the antiques featured on Antiques Roadshow are accurately evaluated or not, may not even matter all that much.
Bemko estimated in 2021 that over 90 percent of the antiques featured on the show never actually make it to the retail market.
The reasons why people decide not to sell their antiques, regardless of the value that they have, vary, ranging from sentiment to simple novelty. Moreover, the valuations are usually only used for insurance and bragging purposes.
Notable Antiques Roadshow appraisals
The appraisers who appear on Antiques Roadshow have specialized knowledge in a variety of fields, including categories like Tribal Arts, Musical Instruments, Watches, Decorative Arts, Glass, Pottery & Porcelain, Silver, Folk Art, Collectibles, Sports Memorabilia, and many, many more.
Most of the items that the appraisers go through on an Antiques Roadshow tour are not worth more than $500 dollars at most, but there have been a few exceptional cases through the years, like the 1904 painting by artist Diego Rivera, which was valued at close to $1 million.
There were also other unsuspecting items like a 1955 Madoura Oval Plate by Pablo Picasso which was worth well over $10,000, and an extremely rare, signed letter from Galileo Galilei, which would likely fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars.
