Antiques Roadshow guest speechless at eye-watering valuation of charity shop bargain
A SCOTTISH landscape painting which was bought at a charity shop for £25 has been valued at £6,000 after being featured on the Antiques Roadshow.
The oil painting was purchased 10 years ago by a woman who was driving back from a holiday in Scotland to her home back in the Midlands.
The work by Scots artist John Cunningham depicts the Ardnamurchan peninsula in the Highlands with islands of Rum and Eigg in the background.
It was valued by Antiques Roadshow expert Grant Ford when the BBC show visited Powis Castle in Wales.
On Sunday night's episode of the long-running show, the owner said: "I bought this painting 10 years ago, it's a Scottish scene.
"The islands are Rum and Eigg and this is Ardnamurchan, a peninsula on the west coast of Scotland.
"We'd all had a family holiday there. We were driving home, all the way back to Shropshire, and my children were only 10 and 12 and I realised the rain was coming down and I had no raincoat for the children.
"I stopped at the nearest charity shop and went in to get a raincoat but I didn't get a raincoat, I got a painting."
Mr Ford said works by Cunningham, who was born in Lanarkshire and studied at Glasgow School of Art, were highly sought-after.
He said: "This is such an immediate, fluid, colourful painting, I'd love to be able to paint just like this.
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"It really is a confident, colourist painting and it's clearly signed 'Cunningham'."
After the guest said she had paid £25 for it, he said: "I think that's an amazing bit of luck because this is a very sought-after painting and actually holds quite a lot of value. I can confidently say it's worth £4,000 to £6,000.
"You could have found a raincoat that day, luckily you found a brilliant painting."
The owner said: "That's quite astonishing for £25. I'm glad I bought it."
Cunningham, who died aged 72 in 1998, worked as a lecturer at Glasgow School of Art after graduating and became a professional artist after retiring in 1985.
He exhibited in the UK, New York and Hong Kong, and his work is in many public, corporate and private collections.
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