2004 Edward Dwurnik Kraków Acrylic Cityscape
GUEST: My sister Ruth worked for the State Department and had two years that she spent, uh, working in Kraków, and so she traveled around Poland. She bought it as a souvenir of her time there. And then, she has since passed away, so now I have the painting.
APPRAISER: Oh, I'm sorry, I...
GUEST: Thank you.
APPRAISER: My condolences.
GUEST: Thank you.
APPRAISER: You know where she would have bought it and how much she might have paid for it?
GUEST: I'm guessing when she was traveling in Warsaw, because I believe she bought it directly from the artist. There's a note on the back that I believe he wrote to her. From what I remember her telling me, I believe she told me she paid $4,000 for it.
APPRAISER: Ah, okay. What do you know about the artist?
GUEST: I don't know a lot. I know he is sort of famous, at least in Poland, and I believe he's passed away now. But other than that, not much.
APPRAISER: And his name is?
GUEST: Edward Dwurnik. Probably not cor... Uh...
APPRAISER: Very good-- good pronunciation. Better than mine, I think.
GUEST: (laughs)
APPRAISER: And we, we see the signature down here and the, the date, 2004. The artist was born in a town just outside of Warsaw, but Warsaw was really his home base, and that's where he studied art and also taught art there. And he was born in 1943. He died in 2018. He really worked in series throughout his life. Around about 1966, he started a series called "Hitchhiking Trips," and it was basically views of Polish cities, but it's a bird's-eye view.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: You have the "Sportsmen" series and also the "Workers" series. This is a later series, when he returned to the "Hitchhiking" series...
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: ...but he called it the "Blue Cities," for obvious reasons.
GUEST: Oh, obvious.
APPRAISER: And I like to think of them, they're less about the topography of the city than perhaps the character.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: He imbues it with a real personality.
GGUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: It's almost like a portrait of the city. And just to reemphasize that, there are two characters here with names beside them. One of them, with the wheels, is the highly controversial now film director Roman Polanski...
GUEST (chuckles): Yes.
APPRAISER: ...who grew up in Kraków. And then, right beside you, we see T. Kantor.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Do you know who that is?
GUEST: I believe he is some sort of a playwright or had something to do with the theater.
APPRAISER: I believe it's Tadeusz Kantor. I was hoping you were going to pronounce the first name.
GUEST: (laughs)
APPRAISER: He is a well-renowned avant-garde director. And the title of the painting, as we can clearly see, is "Kraków." The artist was very prolific. There's at least around about 8,000 canvases...
GUEST: Oh.
APPRAISER: ...known to be done by him.
GUEST: Okay. (chuckles)
APPRAISER: And 20,000 works on paper. It's thought that sometimes he prepared about three canvases in a day.
GUEST: Mm.
APPRAISER: And this is acrylic on canvas. And I think he probably favored acrylic because it dries much more quickly than oil paint.
GUEST: Oh, sure.
APPRAISER: So, he was really, without being mean about it, cranking these out.
GUEST: (chuckles)
APPRAISER: He thought artists should live well. He painted to make the money.
GUEST: Okay. (chuckling)
APPRAISER: So, he would buy expensive cars, he had several lady friends, I understand. He liked to travel.
GUEST: (chuckling)
APPRAISER: So he, he lived the good life, and he supported it through his art. Have you ever thought about the value of it?
GUEST: I had it appraised a few years ago.
APPRAISER: May I ask you what it was appraised for?
GUEST: Yes, $25,000.
APPRAISER: And was that for insurance?
GUEST: For insurance purposes.
APPRAISER: Okay.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: So it's an insurance figure that you would like.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: Well, I think you need to at least double it.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: So...
GUEST: All right.
APPRAISER: You're looking at $50,000.
GUEST: (inhales) Okay. I think my sister would be thrilled. She is probably laughing somewhere right now.
APPRAISER: I think it's rather lovely...
GUEST: (laughs)
APPRAISER: ...that you have this memory of your sister.
GUEST: Yeah.
APPRAISER: And she obviously meant a great deal to you.
GUEST: Yes. very much-- mm. So... (chuckles)
$50,000 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.
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