Woman finds out $100 statue is worth over $100,000

When Antiques Roadshow stopped in St. Louis, one lucky lady got the surprise of a lifetime when she found out how much her little Buddhist statue was worth. She’d bought the item for $100 at a garage sale nearly 20 years ago, but she didn’t know much about it. She was about to be enlightened. It turned out the statue is from the early part of the Ming dynasty, but its age isn’t what makes the piece so special.

“Those who understand Buddhist works of art from that period would look at this object and say it’s beyond a very wealthy patron’s quality of bronze,” the appraiser said. “So it’s likely that the quality would indicate that it’s an imperial piece.”

Despite missing an arm and a hand, the statue was appraised at $100,000 to $125,000 retail — and that was a conservative estimate. Needless to say, the woman who brought it in was at a loss for words.

Antiques Roadshow airs on PBS.

Watch this woman learn her $250 painting is actually worth $300,000:

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