Young Woman Fights Back Tears As Appraiser Reveals Value Of Grandma's Old Painting

Aug 12, 2021

While “Antiques Roadshow” might not sound that interesting on paper — a show in which a group of experts take a look at antiques and appraise them — some high-value items can lead to some of TV’s most exciting surprises and emotional moments.

One such memorable moment from the show took place back in 2018 when a woman brought in a painting she had inherited from her grandmother. The show’s guest explained that her grandmother had likely received the painting from her dad after spending a summer at a dude ranch in the 1940s. When the grandmother in question passed away, she received the painting without much information. Apart from the artist’s signature, which reads “H.F. Farny, 1892,” the woman didn’t even know whether the watercolor and gouache piece was an original painting or a print.

Regardless, she tried to take good care of it, even going as far as removing a dead mosquito from the painting's frame before taking it with her to college. The woman received a bit more information thanks to two general house appraisals. In 1998, the appraiser valued the piece at $200, thinking that it was a print. And in 2004, it was appraised at $250. In other words, it was worth something, but it wasn’t anything that belonged in a museum — at least that’s what this woman thought until the experts at “Antique Roadshow” got a look at it.

Meredith Hilferty, the show’s appraiser, revealed that not only is the piece an original from the French-American painter Henry Francois Farny, but also that it is worth between $200,000 and $300,000.

The painting’s owner was shocked. As you can see in the video below, she begins to hold back tears of joy while smiling and laughing once she hears the piece’s value. 

“I don’t even know what to say,” the woman says. 

She then nervously asks, “Should I have left the mosquito in the back?”

Hilferty reassures her and says that while it would have been better for a conservationist to handle the painting, leaving the bug in could have damaged the painting.

“So I’ll keep it away from my dog,” the woman jokes, after learning that the painting is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Viewers on YouTube had nothing but praise for both the appraiser and the painting’s owner, with one commenter describing her reaction as “genuinely humble, naturally honest and unassuming.”

“The response is beautiful, but my favourite thing about this clip is that the appraiser didn’t build it up, make a fuss, she simply did her job so wonderfully without wanting to be a hero or detract from the piece; that is a true professional and I applaud her for it,” another commenter added.

The valuable painting is one of Henry Farny’s most desirable, according to Hilferty, as it has many figures in it. Farny, who was born in France but moved to the U.S., focused on painting Native Americans, according to Medicine Man Gallery. After spending much of his childhood among the Seneca in Pennsylvania, the artist traveled to the Royal Academy in Dusseldorf, Germany to train in painting under artists like Herman Hartzog. 

What do you think about the woman’s reaction? Did you expect the piece to be worth that much? Let us know — and pass this video on to others.