GUEST: My grandparents picked it up. They traveled a lot in China. APPRAISER: And when were they in China? GUEST: Probably the early part of the century. APPRAISER: Okay. Where have you had this since then? GUEST: My mother's had it in her house, and
then I inherited it and brought it West. APPRAISER: Good. GUEST: She lives near Boston. APPRAISER: You've had other people look at
this, and what have they told you? GUEST: Well, some years ago, she knew someone
who knew about Chinese art, and he looked at it, and he said it was from the Ming Dynasty,
he thought, and priceless, and that's all I know. APPRAISER: Okay. Well, I'll start out by saying when this came
up, I could barely... GUEST: I could tell. APPRAISER: It's fantastic. This is truly... I'm sorry, I'm all worked up. This is among the finest examples of Chinese
art that we have seen on the ROADSHOW. The carving is beautiful. The workmanship is stunning. The carver who did this was truly a master. You can see the muscles rippling under the
surface. It's marble. It's the finest quality marble you can get. It's truly magnificent. And as you look at this, any way you look
at it, it's fantastic. It's wonderful. It's breathtaking. I see little, tiny versions of these that
come in for sale, but never does one see one that's like this. GUEST: Wow. APPRAISER: Now, one of the things he was wrong
about is, it's not Ming Dynasty. GUEST: Huh. APPRAISER: This dates from the Golden Period
of Chinese art, which is called the Tang Dynasty, between the sixth century and the ninth century. GUEST: Wow. APPRAISER: Your grandparents bought something
when they were on their trip that you can't get now. You can see examples like this in museums. GUEST: Wow. APPRAISER: Um, occasionally, they come up
at auction. You know, it's wonderful. GUEST: Oh, I don't plan to pass it on. APPRAISER: It's wonderful. Now, one of the ways that I can tell you that
it's what it's supposed to be, not only just from the artistic aspects of it, because that
tells us clearly that this was done by a masterwork, as a master carver. But when you look at it underneath, you can
see that there's every indication of great age-- GUEST: Uh-huh. APPRAISER: --from the chisel work that's taken
place to the sort of sandy surface, which is fantastic. That gives you the kind of patina that you
want to see. It's something that's been handled, and it's
been around for a while. It's a great thing. GUEST: The artist didn't sign it. APPRAISER: No, these were never signed. Now, I was with my colleagues, Dessa Goddard
and Jim Callahan, both of whom work in the auction business. We've all been in the business for 20, 30
years. And we were each trying to figure out what
the value of this would be. And I'm sure... I'm sure you want to know. GUEST: Well, I mean, that's not important
to me, particularly, but I'd be curious, yes. APPRAISER: Okay, okay. Um... I would feel pretty confident that one could
get between $120,000-$180,000 for it. GUEST: Wow. Not that I'd sell it but yeah. APPRAISER: I mean it's a fantastic, fantastic
thing. I think, you know, if you had come to me ten
years ago with this, I would have gotten $300,000 to $400,000 for it. GUEST: Wow. APPRAISER: The market has shifted; it's changed. Uh, there are a lot of great examples of Chinese
sculpture that have come on the market since then. Now, the value I gave you is an auction estimate
value. GUEST: Mm-hmm. APPRAISER: That's what you could sell it for. GUEST: Uh-huh. APPRAISER: If you wanted to keep this, which
is what you said you want to do, I would say that an insurance figure on this would be
somewhere between, you know, $150,000 and $250,000. Probably toward the high end. I would say around $250,000-- GUEST: Wow. APPRAISER: --for insurance purposes. GUEST: I'm just really pleased. APPRAISER: So it was worth lugging it in here. GUEST: Yeah, it's... it's wonderful.
$180k seems low for something that's older than England.
I admit I know very little about handling priceless marble works of art, but shouldn’t he have been wearing gloves or something while manipulating it?
Wow! Fantastic video.
Not to be cynical, but she was probably deliberately glossing over the provenance of the marble lion. With "my grandparents picked it up" being an euphemism for stolen. China at the start of the 20th Century was a colossal mess with the Qing Dynasty on its last legs as Western powers invaded and carved out enclaves all over the country. Much of Asian art in Western museums and collectors today originate from art that was stolen during this time period.