Oil Painting Attributed to Franciabigio
GUEST: I have been told that it was attributed to an artist whose last name was Biggi, B-I-G-G-I, and he was a minor late Renaissance painter.
APPRAISER: How did you get this?
GUEST: I had always admired it in my aunt's home, and she was downsizing, and had contacted a museum in Florida, and I guess they weren't as friendly as she would have hoped over the phone, and decided to give it to me.
APPRAISER: And you've had it restored at one point?
GUEST: Uh, she did.
APPRAISER: She did.
GUEST: Uh, this is the way I received it.
APPRAISER: Okay. Well, we don't have many Old Master paintings on the "ROADSHOW," because we don't see too many. And secondly, we don't often put them on because we don't often know exactly who they're by, but I think we can find out who this one is-- this is actually a, a Florentine painting of the High Renaissance. This painting was probably done around 1500.
GUEST: Oh!
APPRAISER: The artist named Biggi, there's a Fortunato Biggi, who actually is a later, 17th- century painter, does flowers.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: That's not him.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: It's an Italian Renaissance painter by the name of Franciabigio. 1484 to 1525 is when he lived.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: This one is a, a Florentine Madonna. He was clearly influenced by Raphael. You have this figure here, this sort of, uh, figura serpentinata, the Christ child. And then you have the mother up here. It's of the period, and we can tell by the very distinctive craquelure here. There's a very squared-off kind of craquelure, which is very much of the period. It's not a copy. We also see that it's on an old panel. We have this line down here, which is not a split. It's where the panel was joined to make this large piece of wood. When it got restored, unfortunately, somebody wrapped it up in bubble wrap. There's little dots here where the varnish was still wet. At some point, you may want to redo that varnish, but here you have a great painting. Do you have any i, idea of what it's worth?
GUEST: There was a figure on the paper when I received it, but I just thought that was maybe just for insurance purposes.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: And that figure was $15,000.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: But honestly, I don't know.
APPRAISER: Well, in the Old Master world, we don't always know, 'cause they aren't signed. If this painting were attributed to Franciabigio meaning we aren't quite sure, it's worth $15,000. But if we can prove that it's real by showing it to the proper scholar in, in Italy, and if this is really Franciabigio, which I believe it is, it's worth $60,000 to $80,000.
GUEST: (laughing): Oh, my God. Oh, she'll ask me to send it back.
APPRAISER: Yeah. (laughs)
GUEST: I... Well, I'll keep it forever, I mean, I...
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: I love the painting, but...
APPRAISER: No, it's a, it's a great work. It's one of the best Old Master paintings I've seen come into, uh the ROADSHOW.
GUEST: It really is?
APPRAISER: Yeah.
GUEST: Oh, wow.
$15,000 Auction
$15,000 Auction
$15,000 Auction
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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."
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