It was a touchdown for this guest – even if his face didn’t say so.
The hit PBS reality show headed to Spring Preserve in , where paintings and drawings expert Eric Hanks met a man who had brought in a huge painting depicting a scene from a football match.
Eric asked his guest to share some more information on his item, to which the person began: “Ernie Barnes was a former NFL player he played for the Jets.”
“But after football, he found art as being, I guess, part of his livelihood. And we all are familiar with Sugar Shack,” the man continued, referring to one of Ernier’s other famous paintings.
“My father and Ernie made friends, and they were he was able to purchase this piece, and this actually sat on top of our fire mantle in our home in Santa Barbara, California.”
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The guest brought in a painting by NFL star Ernie Barnes (Image: PBS)
“So about when would you say he got the painting?” Eric asked, to which the individual replied: “I would say this was probably in the early to mid 80s,” as he admitted he wasn’t sure how much his father paid for the painting.
“Okay, and you brought in something else too. Can you tell us what that is?” Eric pointed out.
“Yes, this is just a catalogue that has some of his most famous art is in here,” the man explained, gesturing to a small brown book with a snap of Ernie placed in the middle.
“Excellent,” expert Eric responded, as he began to put his expertise to good use: “I have to point out, though that it also has a biographical sketch written by Alex Haley, author of Roots,” pointing to the catalogue.
“So let’s focus on the painting. This is an oil on canvas, and it was created in 1971 and I know that because it stated on the back the title is fourth and one which in football talk is all,” Eric excitedly shared.
“It’s definitely properly titled. You can almost hear the cracking of the helmet in this scene,” the expert joked.
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The man was expressionless despite Eric’s huge evaluation (Image: PBS)
The man was cracked a small smile when Eric told him he should insure his item for $650,000 (Image: PBS)
Eric continued: “And earlier, you mentioned Sugar Shack, and that was one of his most famous pieces of good times.”
“And that was also covered in one of Marvin Gaye’s albums, and it famously auctioned not too long ago for about $15 million, which was a record for the artist,” he added. The auction estimate at the time was $150,000.
“This piece wouldn’t fall into that category, just because it wasn’t on Good Times for so many years and it wasn’t on Marvin Gaye’s album, but it’s still a very valuable piece,” Eric noted.
However, that didn’t stop Eric from urging the man to put a value on it for insurance purposes: “I would make this around $650,000.”
The man cracked a tiny smile and remained composed despite the huge evaluation and replied: “Wow. That’s amazing.”