Man left shocked after discovering paint’s value following huge mistake by cleaner

The owner of a valuable painting has received a slightly disappointing valuation from an art dealer on Antiques Roadshow.

English art dealer Peter Nahum appeared in a retro episode of the 2002 BBC series to give his opinion on a painting that has been in his family’s “home for 100 years.”

Watch below to see what happened:

The artwork was created by English artist John Atkinson Grimshaw, a Victorian-era artist from Leeds best known for his nighttime cityscape scenes.

The famous American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler, who worked with Grimshaw at his Chelsea studios, once said: “I considered myself the inventor of the nocturnes until I saw Grimmy’s moonlit pictures .

Now back to the exhibition, filmed at Knightshayes Court, where Nahum was clearly impressed by the painting, until he spotted something that would make it half as valuable as it should have been.

Due to the unfortunate work of a cleaner in the past, the valuation was seriously affected.

“Well, it’s part of the family story,” says the painting’s owner.

“Apparently during the war years there was a housekeeper who helped around the house.

and she assumed the moon was a smudge of something that had fallen into the picture and she tried to clean the moon off. »

Nahum, amazed, then added: “As soon as you explain it, we can understand why the moon does not balance with the rest of the image, which it would have done.

“And she not only had a good scrub here, she actually took off, I would say, a slight tone of it all.

“So that this circle, the aura of the Moon in the

the mist, has indeed gained importance.

“Because when an artist finishes a painting, what he does is balance, with

usually pure enamels on the surface, and in this case it comes out as a

a sort of archery target.

“It’s Grimshaw showing his own, feeding the mass market, rather than painstakingly painting the best pictures.”

Sadly, the art dealer revealed the price of the painting would be “more like £15,000”.

He noted it could have been worth £30,000 if it had not been damaged.

If you’re fancy enough to have cleaners, be sure to explain well in advance that your century-old paintings are not to be touched.

Featured image credit: BBC

Topics: BBC, Antiques Roadshow