1967 Ram Kumar Oil Painting
GUEST: My parents lived in India in the '60s. My dad had gotten a Fulbright scholarship and so they traveled there. The second time they went to-- for him to do research, between '68 and '70s, they had a friend who said, "Oh, I know this artist, Ram Kumar." And so they got introduced to him in a park in New Delhi. And he invited them back to his studio and they bought this beautiful painting. And it's been in my family since I was a kid. I always just loved it, it would hang on our living room wall.
APPRAISER: Do you know what your parents paid for it?
GUEST: I asked my mom and she really didn't remember.
APPRAISER: He grew up in the north of India in Simla. Now it's Shimla. It's right near Nepal, so it's very hilly and mountainous and beautiful. And as a kid he loved the landscape. And that was sort of a place he liked to escape to, to just sort of enjoy. His father worked for the British government, and he was sort of thinking of going in the same direction. And he was studying at St. Stephen's College, working on an M.A. in economics. And he'd always been interested in writing, but some friends sort of got him interested in art.
GUEST: Hmm.
APPRAISER: In 1949, he decided to go to Paris. He got permission from his parents to get a one-way ticket.
GUEST: Ah.
APPRAISER: Where he studied with André Lhote, uh, Fernand Léger. And he just, he soaked in the culture.
GUEST: Hmm.
APPRAISER: He loved the culture, so he was seeing contemporary exhibitions, he was seeing the works of Picasso and Modigliani, but he was also seeing the Old Masters.
GUEST: Hmm.
APPRAISER: And then he came back and settled primarily in New Delhi.
GUEST: Hmm.
APPRAISER: He certainly brought what he learned with him. But in this particular case, he also wanted to make sure his style stayed Indian.
GUEST: Hmm.
APPRAISER: He was part of the first generation of post-colonial Indian painters.
GUEST: Hmm.
APPRAISER: And that was important to him. It's an oil on canvas. It's signed and it's also dated 1967, and this is really when he started to go more abstract. He found people were distracted by his figures. When he put figures in his paintings, people just focused on the figures...
GUEST: Hmm.
APPRAISER: ...and they didn't look at anything else going o-on around them.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And so he started removing the figures. This is right at the moment that he's really just mastering abstraction. And so it's really from his mature style. It's from a great date. It's really in pretty terrific condition. So realistically, for an insurance value...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...I would insure it at about $180,000.
GUEST: Wow. Okay, good to know. (chuckling): Yeah, I will definitely, uh, keep taking good care of it. It's very, really, a keepsake of my family, so I look forward to being able to keep it on my wall.
APPRAISER: I would probably frame it.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: A frame not just beautifies, but also protects.
GUEST: Okay.
$180,000 Insurance
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Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
Note the date: Take note of the date the appraisal was recorded. This information appears in the upper left corner of the page, with the label "Appraised On." Values change over time according to market forces, so the current value of the item could be higher, lower, or the same as when our expert first appraised it.
Context is key: Listen carefully. Most of our experts will give appraisal values in context. For example, you'll often hear them say what an item is worth "at auction," or "retail," or "for insurance purposes" (replacement value). Retail prices are different from wholesale prices. Often an auctioneer will talk about what she knows best: the auction market. A shop owner will usually talk about what he knows best: the retail price he'd place on the object in his shop. And though there are no hard and fast rules, an object's auction price can often be half its retail value; yet for other objects, an auction price could be higher than retail. As a rule, however, retail and insurance/replacement values are about the same.
Verbal approximations: The values given by the experts on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW are considered "verbal approximations of value." Technically, an "appraisal" is a legal document, generally for insurance purposes, written by a qualified expert and paid for by the owner of the item. An appraisal usually involves an extensive amount of research to establish authenticity, provenance, composition, method of construction, and other important attributes of a particular object.
Opinion of value: As with all appraisals, the verbal approximations of value given at ROADSHOW events are our experts' opinions formed from their knowledge of antiques and collectibles, market trends, and other factors. Although our valuations are based on research and experience, opinions can, and sometimes do, vary among experts.
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