Appraisers Seek Finds at Benefit for Art Museum

An aunt’s brooch, an ex-husband’s print, a grandmother’s silver--such were the treasures shown Friday to experts who know if that which glitters is truly gold.

For five hours at the Ventura County Museum of History and Art, appraisers from Butterfield & Butterfield auction house tapped, measured and held to the light the objects proudly brought them by more than 200 people.

Many said they were fans of “Antiques Roadshow,” a public-television program that draws thousands of people for free appraisals and a bit of history on their treasures.

Mary Dullam of Camarillo waited outside the Los Angeles Convention Center for three hours in August, only to be turned away from the overcrowded “Roadshow” set. At the museum Friday, she and her sister, Hilda Serr, had a shorter wait, but Dullam was a little disappointed to hear that the four pieces she inherited from a friend are worth less than she had expected.

“I just sort of thought that they had some value because I know a little bit of the history of them,” Dullam said, before leaving with a total estimate of $450 for pieces including a sewing machine and decorative box.

At the jewelry table, appraiser Jill Burgum used rulers and charts, a magnifying glass and a calculator--plus her expert eye--to value five pieces that Carolyn Lundgren of Ventura inherited from her aunt.

“I’ve already warned my relatives that I’m going to auction these off,” Lundgren said, adding she would donate the proceeds to a fund for animals.

Told that her diamond brooch could be worth up to $4,750, Lundgren expressed the surprise that devotees of TV appraisal shows watch for.

“Whoa! Lovely, lovely,” she said.

“This is a spectacular piece that we would love to have at auction,” Burgum told her.

That’s what Butterfield gets out of these pro bono events: a chance to earn 10% commissions by putting some of the more valuable pieces on the block. Proceeds from the day’s event--participants paid up to $10 per item--went to the museum.

And though the experts do spend much of the day looking at what others might call junk, every now and then a true treasure turns up.

“That’s the fun of this sort of an event for an appraiser, because you never know what you’re going to see,” Burgum said, adding that a walk-up appraisal once produced a $40,000 ring.

But for the most part, there are those $40 items.

“Most of the time it is negative news,” said print and painting appraiser Scot Levitt. “But people laugh it off usually.”