An architecture mystery from Antiques Roadshow

Summary

Podcast Summary: "An Architecture Mystery from Antiques Roadshow"

Introduction

In the episode titled "An Architecture Mystery from Antiques Roadshow," hosts Adam Monahan and Marcia Bemko delve into a fascinating story that intertwines art appraisal, architectural history, and a personal bidding adventure. This episode not only explores the intricacies of correctly dating a painting but also highlights the collaborative efforts required to ensure accuracy in historical documentation.

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Overview of the Mystery

The episode begins with Adam introducing the topic of lottery tickets, setting a lighthearted tone before transitioning to the main story involving a William Klusman painting featured on Antiques Roadshow. Marcia Bemko, the executive producer of the long-running GBH television series, shares her enthusiasm for lottery tickets, adding a personal touch to the narrative.

Key Quote:

Adam Monahan [00:34]: “Since we are here in a show that is all about gambling, I feel like we have to kick it off by talking about scratch tickets.”

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The William Klusman Painting

Betty Krulick, an appraiser for Antiques Roadshow specializing in American art, discusses a William Klusman painting that appeared on the show in 2022. The artwork, an impressionistic oil on canvas depicting a vibrant Chicago scene from the steps of the Art Institute of Chicago, was initially appraised with an estimated value between $30,000 and $50,000.

Key Details:

• Artist: William Klusman, born in Indiana in 1859.
• Style: Primarily a landscape painter associated with the Hoosier School.
• Date of Painting: Initially dated to circa 1910 based on stylistic analysis and comparison with contemporaneous works.

Key Quote:

Marcia Bemko [00:46]: “I'm convinced that I'm gonna win the lottery in a life changing money way.”

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The Discovery of the Anachronism

Bob Levy, a docent with the Chicago Architecture Center and an avid Antiques Roadshow fan, identifies a discrepancy in the painting's date. He notices that the Wrigley Building, visible in the background of the artwork, was not completed until 1921. Additionally, he spots an addition to the building completed in 1924, which contradicts the initially appraised date of 1910.

Key Quote:

Bob Levy [07:38]: “I could see the Wrigley Building, and I knew immediately that the Wrigley Building wasn't completed until 1921.” [07:47]

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Fact-Checking and Corrections

Upon receiving Bob's insights, Betty Krulick promptly updates the painting's date on the show's website, initially adjusting it to 1927 based on Bob's analysis. However, the correction isn't the final word. Jeffrey Baer, a seasoned television host and producer at WTTW and a docent for the Chicago Architecture Center, reevaluates the evidence and suggests a more accurate dating between 1924 and 1927.

Key Developments:

• Jeffrey Baer's Analysis: Identifies that the building depicted is likely the Old Republic Building from 1924, not the 333 North Michigan Avenue building, which was still under construction at the time.
• Revised Date: The painting is now believed to have been created between 1924 and 1927.

Key Quote:

Jeffrey Baer [13:38]: “Chicago is, I like to say, America's first city of architecture. The skyscraper was invented here.” [13:57]

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The Auction Adventure

With the painting's corrected date, an auction house in Tennessee approaches Betty Krulick to consign the artwork. Seizing the opportunity, Bob Levy decides to bid on the painting. The episode narrates the intense bidding process, culminating in Bob successfully securing the painting for $22,000, plus a 22% buyer's premium, totaling $26,800.

Key Quote:

Bob Levy [24:08]: “It was so intense. … There were eight bids and a grand total of 37 seconds. I couldn't even get a bid in.” [24:08]

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Reflections and Revelations

Post-auction, Adam Monahan humorously acknowledges a mishap in the fact-checking process, revealing that he was responsible for the initial oversight. Marcia Bemko offers supportive and sage advice, emphasizing growth from mistakes.

Key Quote:

Marcia Bemko [28:19]: “You know what's good about that kind of mistake, though, Adam? Next time you make a mistake, it'll be very different from that one.” [28:19]

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Conclusion

The episode encapsulates the meticulous nature of art appraisal and the importance of collaborative fact-checking. From identifying historical inaccuracies to the personal thrill of acquiring a piece of art, listeners are taken on a journey that underscores the value of attention to detail and the unforeseen adventures that can arise from a simple observation.

Final Thoughts:

• The corrected dating of the painting enhances its historical accuracy and value.
• Bob Levy's successful bid adds a personal triumph to the narrative.
• The episode serves as a testament to the dedication of Antiques Roadshow's team in preserving and accurately representing art history.

Closing Quote:

Adam Monahan [28:43]: “Just one question remained. … It was me.” [27:19]

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Credits

• Host and Scriptwriter: Ian Coss
• Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins
• Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss
• Story Editor: Lacy Roberts
• Editorial Advisor: Jen McKim
• Fact Checkers: Ryan Alderman and Isabel Hibbard
• Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss
• Graphic Design: Bill Miller
• Project Manager: Meiqian He

“Scratch & Win” is produced by the Peabody Award-winning team behind “The Big Dig,” brought to you by GBH News and distributed by PRX.

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This episode not only entertains but also educates listeners on the complexities of art appraisal and the significance of accurate historical documentation. Whether you're an art enthusiast, history buff, or simply enjoy a good mystery, "An Architecture Mystery from Antiques Roadshow" offers a compelling narrative that highlights the intersection of art, architecture, and personal passion.

Transcript

[Adam Monahan]

Support for Scratch and Win comes from Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. Since we are here in a show that is all about gambling, I feel like we have to kick it off by talking about scratch tickets. So, Marcia, Adam, do you play scratch tickets?

[Marcia Bemko]

Oh, yeah, baby.

[Adam Monahan]

Marcia Bemko is the executive producer of the long running and beloved GBH television series Antiques Roadshow and a lottery enthusiast.

[Marcia Bemko]

I do. I'm like, I'm convinced that I'm gonna win the lottery in a life changing money way. So I've had season tickets for d decades.

[Adam Monahan]

You don't have to answer this directly, but you can just nod yes or shake your head no. But you know, in our series we start with this fact that residents of Massachusetts spend on average over $1,000 a year on lottery tickets. Are you pulling your weight, Marcia?

[Marcia Bemko]

Well, the season's tickets are loan is half of that.

[Adam Monahan]

I'll take that as a Y.

That's fantastic.

Adam Monahan is a producer for Roadshow and the host of the podcast Antiques Roadshow Detours. Adam, however, is not pulling his weight on lottery tickets.

I'm a little wimpy. When I was a kid when my, I would always get scratch tickets when we go to the store because my mom would let me buy a dollar and scratch it and if I, if I won a dollar, I would go trade it in like for a dollar. She was so mad. She was like, if you win a dollar, you gotta trade it in to get another one. I'm like, why would I do that? I have a dollar now. So basically, I was conning.

Nobody takes the $1 bill.

I was conning my mom to give me a dollar for free, basically.

So we're all here because we share something in common, which is that we love history, we love getting into the nitty gritty. And so we're gonna share an episode of the Antiques Roadshow podcast on and this episode we're gonna share. It actually revolves around one of these, like nitty gritty facts from the show. Now, Adam, you are one of the fact checkers on Antiques Roadshow, Is that correct?

That is correct. So I am the fact checker along with a couple other colleagues from here, Ali Izzo Smith helps me. The only difference is I have a podcast to discuss when I screw up. Fact checking.

Mm that is basically the purpose of the podcast, right?

At this point. It is. I'm thinking of calling it Antiques Roadshow. Oops. Or Antiques Roadshow. On second thought.

And yeah. Marcia, how do you feel about putting all the dirty laundry out to air?

[Marcia Bemko]

All joking aside, we want to teach the world.

[Adam Monahan]

Right.

[Marcia Bemko]

We don't want to make a correction. So when it happens. I think I'd grown. It depends on what the era is.

[Adam Monahan]

Yeah.

[Marcia Bemko]

In this particular episode that people are gonna hear because the era kept happening over and over again. I literally made sounds that I won't make now. Cause nobody wants to hear em. I mean, I was so disappointed.

[Bob Levy]

Yeah.

[Adam Monahan]

Give it away. But there's layers and layers to this one.

[Marcia Bemko]

Yeah.

[Adam Monahan]

And I'll also add that this particular episode, the Dirty Laundry and the facts in question have to do with some. Some really nerdy historical details about Chicago architecture and urban design and planning and just stuff that I think is solidly in the wheelhouse of this show and that you're really gonna appreciate. So I think we should roll the episode. What's it called again?

This one is called a fact. Antiques Roadshow Detours.

Cool. Excited to listen.

Can you introduce yourself, who you are and what you do for Antiques Roadshow?

[Betty Krulick]

I'm Betty Krulick. My business is Betty Krulick Fine Art limited. I'm an appraiser for on the Painting Table, and I have a specialty in American art.

[Adam Monahan]

And how long have you been appraising paintings for us on the show? Do you remember?

[Betty Krulick]

I started, I think it was in 2009. So it's going on 15 years.

[Adam Monahan]

Wow.

[Betty Krulick]

I consider myself a newbie.

[Adam Monahan]

15 years is kind of a newbie in terms of a show that's 28 years running.

[Betty Krulick]

Exactly.

[Adam Monahan]

So a couple years ago, Betty, we had a Klusman painting. What can you tell me about this one?

[Betty Krulick]

So this painting was just a beautiful Chicago scene, lots of activity. It was coming out of the steps of the Art Institute of Chicago with Michigan Avenue kind of stage laid out in front of you, figures, cars, flags. It was just a really, really beautiful painting by an artist that is primarily a landscape painter.

[Adam Monahan]

William Klusman was born in Indiana in 1859, but he spent some formative years studying at the Chicago Academy of Design, the precursor to the Art Institute of Chicago. The painting that appeared on our show in 2022 showed the view up Michigan Avenue from the steps of the Art Institute itself. Not one of his typical works.

[Betty Krulick]

He was mostly known for being one of the Hoosier School, the Indiana landscape painters. Very rural Subjects. And then, you know, here is this just beautiful, active city scene.

[Adam Monahan]

Yeah, I feel like any tourist who's gone to Chicago has seen that scene.

[Betty Krulick]

This is the quintessential Chicago picture.

[Adam Monahan]

The painting is oil on canvas, about two by two and a half feet. In the foreground, you can see one of the Art Institute's iconic bronze lions, two ornate street lamps, pigeons, cars, pedestrians, and then the formidable buildings of Michigan Avenue and extending and blurring out into the distance. It's done in sort of a hazy, impressionistic style, so it's hard to see a lot of details. There's also no date on the painting, so Betty had to make a very educated guess.

[Betty Krulick]

I figured that it was an early work, you know, once he had studied at the museum from about 1890 through the 20s, I kind of put it at the center of that output. It also corresponded with what other artists in New York were doing at the time. These kind of street scenes, the high vantage point. So that's why we put it there.

[Adam Monahan]

These perfectly logical reasons led Betty to date the painting to circa 1910, and she appraised it for 30 to $50,000. Ka Ching. But there were certain other clues about what year it was made hidden in the painting itself, clues that Betty and whoever fact checked somehow didn't check. Then a few months later, we got an email from a viewer.

[Bob Levy]

I'm Bob Levy. I'm a docent with the Chicago Architecture center, and I give tours of the Chicago River.

[Adam Monahan]

What is the Chicago Architecture Center?

[Bob Levy]

So the Chicago Architecture center is a group of people in Chicago who are really excited to celebrate and honor and promote Chicago as a capital of architecture.

[Adam Monahan]

And. Are you an Antiques Roadshow fan?

[Bob Levy]

Dude, I am an Antiques Roadshow super fan. It is one of my absolute favorite TV shows.

[Adam Monahan]

Well, thank you for that. And the reason I'm contacting you is that we had a William Klusman oil painting on our show, and. And when this painting aired, we got an email from you. Can you tell us why you contacted us?

[Bob Levy]

I was actually watching the episode on the PBS app a little bit after it first aired. And the appraiser, who did a beautiful appraisal of this beautiful painting dated the painting to 1910. And in the distance up Michigan Avenue, I could see the Wrigley Building. And I knew immediately that the Wrigley Building wasn't completed until 1921. And I was fairly certain that I could actually see the addition to the Wrigley Building, which was completed three years later in 1924.

[Adam Monahan]

If a building from 1924 was in the painting. It wasn't painted. Around 1910, Bob looked up Betty's gallery so he could let her know.

[Bob Levy]

And I emailed Betty, figuring, you know, like, okay, well, I'm going to put this out into the ether and never hear back. And a half an hour later, at like 10:00 clock at night in Chicago, she emails me back.

[Adam Monahan]

Betty CC'd Marcia and basically said, thank you so much. We'll update it on our website. Can we quote you?

[Bob Levy]

And I said, well, you know, look, I'm a trainee at the Chicago Architecture Center. I'm really not any kind of expert. Can we pause a beat and let me just sort of like, circle back to the actual experts and authorities of the Chicago Architecture Center?

[Adam Monahan]

This time Marcia answered, of course, take your time. We want to make sure we get the facts right.

[Bob Levy]

So I went to the experts at the Schevelde Architecture center, and I had taken a screen grab of the closeup of the painting from the episode, and we studied it very carefully and came up with a date of 1927 based on a building that was across Michigan Avenue from the Wrigley Building.

[Adam Monahan]

I want to stress something here. These buildings are not easy to identify. This building he's talking about is a blurry gray rectangle. To my untrained eye, it has no defining features. But Bob and his colleagues were confident.

[Bob Levy]

I wrote a carefully worded email back to Marcia Bemko and Betty Prulik, and they updated the website and I was very proud of my contribution.

[Adam Monahan]

You became part of your favorite PBS series.

[Bob Levy]

I became part of my favorite PBS series. Right.

[Adam Monahan]

Speaking of which, have you ever heard of this William Klusman at all?

[Bob Levy]

No, I had never heard of him before. Watching that appraisal. No.

[Adam Monahan]

What were your thoughts on this painting of the subject matter like this? As a Chicago history buff, this must have spoke to you.

[Bob Levy]

The painting is absolutely beautiful. And in one of my emails to Marsha Bemko, I asked her if seller who brought the painting into Antiques Roadshow was selling it. I don't know if I could afford it, but I would love to have that on the wall of my home in Chicago.

[Adam Monahan]

The guest wasn't selling and we don't share our guest information anyway. But we did post the update from Bob on our website.

[Bob Levy]

It reads, based on the buildings visible in the painting, we date the painting to 1927. It appears that the Wrigley Building is visible at the northern end of Michigan Avenue in the painting. And the fact that the building is visible in the painting and couldn't have been visible before 1927 is what allows us to date the painting to sometime that year before klusmann died on September 28.

[Adam Monahan]

The fact had officially been checked and corrected on our website. Case closed, mystery solved. Or so we thought.

[Bob Levy]

The Chicago Architecture center posted this story on their in house docent website. And one of the senior docents read the news and he believed that I was off by one building. Hmm.

[Adam Monahan]

Our roadshow super fan fact checking sleuth is wrong. After the break, our corrector gets corrected. The guy who emailed Bob was another docent at the Chicago Architecture Center. And not just any docent, as it turns out.

[Bob Levy]

A he's an old friend of mine and B, he produces and hosts specials and documentaries about Chicago architecture for the Chicago flagship PBS station wttw. And he is absolutely beloved in Chicago.

[Adam Monahan]

So, Jeffrey, can you just give your name and what you do?

[Jeffrey Baer]

My name is Jeffrey Baer. G E O F F R E Y B A E R and I have been a television host and producer for like almost 35 years at the PBS station in Chicago, WTTW, which proudly airs Antiques Roadshow.

[Adam Monahan]

I like this guy already.

[Jeffrey Baer]

So I make these, these programs about Chicago architecture and history. So I'm kind of like a tour guide on tv and I'm also a docent for the Chicago Architecture Center.

[Adam Monahan]

If you're into architecture, Chicago is a pretty good place to to be.

[Jeffrey Baer]

Chicago is, I like to say, America's first city of architecture. The skyscraper was invented here. Frank Lloyd Wright was here. Mies van der Rohe and the glass and steel style of architecture, modernism, you can draw a line back to Chicago. So architecture is kind of very much in our DNA.

[Adam Monahan]

Jeffrey, I'm so excited that our PBS worlds have collided. The reasons for that I'm not happy about as the fact checker for our program because when I think of Chicago, you're right, it feels like an old city. The Art Institute of Chicago, I've been there. It looks like something out of Europe. And of course those skyscrapers have always been there, but that's not the case. Can you tell me about that area around the Art Institute of Chicago? What I'd learn if I went on a tour there?

[Jeffrey Baer]

Chicago's actually a very new city. You know, in the 1820s when some of these Midwestern cities like Cincinnati and St. Louis, the big river towns were bustling commercial centers. Chicago was this little, you know, frontier trading post, not on the map anywhere. But in the 1820s, they started digging a canal that would connect the Great Lakes via the Chicago river, which is the river, the central river in Chicago with the Mississippi. And this made Chicago the center of the most important trade route in the country. You could get from the east coast all the way to the Gulf of Mexico because that little canal was the only missing link. So when they opened up that trade route, Chicago became the fastest growing city in the world.

[Adam Monahan]

Foreign forties trains arrived. A land grant allowed the Illinois Central Railroad to build a line from the top of Illinois to the state's southern tip. And elevated tracks briefly passed over Lake Michigan in downtown Chicago. And the city's population just kept growing. By 1871, it was the first fifth largest metropolis in the nation. But that year, disaster struck. A fire that started in a barn on the city's southwest side tore through the city, leaving an estimated 300 people dead and a third of the city homeless. And 17,500 buildings in ruin.

[Jeffrey Baer]

And out of the ashes rises the world's first city of skyscrapers.

[Adam Monahan]

After the great fire came the great rebuilding. Many of the new structures looked a lot like the ones that had burned. Three or four story buildings made of wood. But in the following decades, Chicagoans began erecting new marvels of glass and sand. The fire brought a change to the city's topography as well. The train trestle over Lake Michigan had created a sort of lagoon. The perfect solution to the problem of fire debris.

[Jeffrey Baer]

After the Chicago fire of 1871, they had actually shoveled up all the ashes and thrown them in the lake, which filled in that area from the shore out to the train trestle. But it was kind of this barren, no man's land. There were like squatters, camps and itinerant circuses and an armory. So it was kind of a trashy lakefront.

[Adam Monahan]

Fast forward to 1893. Chicago, now the U.S. s second largest city, was hosting the World's Fair. It was a massive expo that featured some of the world's greatest greatest performers. Scott Joplin, Harry Houdini, and amazing new inventions. The Ferris wheel, the zipper. Over its six month run, the fair had more than 27 million visitors. And the fair's architecture was of course, stunning. The landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted designed the grounds. He's the guy who designed New York Central park instead. Some of America's most celebrated architects designed the buildings. The chief architect overseeing it all was Chicago's own Daniel Burnham.

[Jeffrey Baer]

Burnham loved historicism. So the whole World's Fair looked like this Greek and Roman Beaux Arts neoclassical fair. And it sparked a movement called the City Beautiful movement.

[Adam Monahan]

The idea was simple. Cities should be Beautiful for the good of their residents. This idea spread out across the nation, inspiring buildings like Grand Central Station in New York, union station in D.C. the Boston Public Library, and many, many more. But not everyone agreed with this philosophy.

[Jeffrey Baer]

It made those early skyscraper architects outraged because they were creating something new and modern. And Louis Sullivan, the great father of the skyscraper, said that this would set architecture back 50 years. And it sort of did.

[Adam Monahan]

One of those new Greco Roman style World's Fair buildings housed a sort of 19th century TED talk conference. Leaders from around the world gathered to present on topics like surgery, social reform, engineering and religious studies. The building was designed in the Beaux Arts style, which takes its influence from classical Greek and Roman forms. Think huge stone buildings with columns, arches and figures built into the facade. Or just think about what that building became. The Art Institute of Chicago.

[Jeffrey Baer]

Well, it was the only building built for the World's Fair of 1893 that was not on the fairgrounds, which were much farther south in the neighborhood of Hyde Park, Jackson park, where the University of Chicago is now. This is right downtown.

[Adam Monahan]

In fact, it was right in that desolate area between Michigan Avenue and the lake, the area that was built from the ashes of the great fire. The Art Institute opened in the building in December 1893. And soon after, skyscrapers began going up along Michigan Avenue, including 333 North Michigan Ave. The key to dating our painting, or so we thought. So Bob emailed us and thought that the clue was in one building that dated it to 1927. But then, and one has to be one of the first, in a correction of a correction, he mentioned your name. Tell us what we learned from you.

[Jeffrey Baer]

So we're looking north on Michigan Avenue and you get to see all these buildings in the distance. And the Wrigley Building is there. So that's 1921. The London Guarantee Building is there. I believe that's 1923. And then across Michigan Avenue from that, Bob thought that tall building was what we know as 333 North Michigan Avenue, which is right on the river's edge. But I realized that that probably was actually a building that's one building closer to us and would be blocking the view of 333 North Michigan Avenue, which is a building called the Old Republic Building from 1924.

[Adam Monahan]

Again, the buildings in the background of this painting are not exactly photorealistic. But even in photos, these two buildings look pretty similar. They're both big, gray white rectangles with flat facades and neat rows of small windows. They have a similar silhouette, and they're right next to each other. But if you're looking up Michigan Avenue from the steps of the Art Institute Today or in 1924, the Old Republic building is the one you'd see.

[Jeffrey Baer]

And if this had been 1927, the next building to the north, which is to 333 North Michigan Avenue, there's a tower portion that's about eight stories taller than Old Republic. So if Klusman had been really accurate, he probably would have shown us Old Republic and then the top part of 333 poking above it.

[Adam Monahan]

But there's no tower like that in the painting.

[Jeffrey Baer]

So it's likely that that building had not been constructed yet. And so this is probably 1924, 1925, something like that. 26. Maybe if they hadn't gotten to constructing the upper tower yet of 333.

[Adam Monahan]

So definitely not 1910 like we thought, and definitely not the initial thought of Bob. Of 1927. We're now somewhere between 1924 and 1927.

[Jeffrey Baer]

Yes, I think so. That would be a good. A good estimate.

[Betty Krulick]

Foreign.

[Adam Monahan]

Fact check I've ever done.

[Jeffrey Baer]

Welcome to the World of Chicago Architecture Center. Docents, there is no minutiae that we are not deeply diving into.

[Adam Monahan]

With Jeffrey's new information. We updated our website once again and put the matter to bed. We also learned some news from our appraiser, Betty, who got a call from an auction house in Tennessee.

[Betty Krulick]

And they said, you know, we're trying to. To get this work on consignment. I just thought you should know.

[Adam Monahan]

And there was one person Betty thought should know.

[Betty Krulick]

I was like, wait a minute. Did anybody call Bob?

[Adam Monahan]

Bob, the original date corrector, had asked Betty if the painting was for sale. Now that it was, I got the fun job of telling him. Which brings me to the update that I did have for you and why we are requesting for a podcast on Saturday. This is going up for auction at Case Auctions.

[Bob Levy]

Oh, my God.

[Adam Monahan]

Yeah. So two days, 21 hours, 41 minutes from now, this, this painting will go up for sale. Right now. Its starting bid is $14,000 and it looks like there's zero bids. So.

[Bob Levy]

Oh, my God, this is my opportunity. How cool would it be if I get that painting right?

[Adam Monahan]

I think it'd be pretty remarkable.

[Bob Levy]

Like, what a. What a great ending to this, to this little kooky story.

[Adam Monahan]

After the auction, I called Bob to hear how it went. So, Bob, the big auction was this weekend. What do you have to tell us?

[Bob Levy]

It was so intense. You register with the auction house, then you register to be a phone bidder because I'm thousands of miles away from the auction house. And then you wait. And then the guy calls and says, okay, we're a couple of lots away. Are you ready? And I'm ready. And I literally. There were eight bids and a grand total of 37 seconds. I couldn't even light get, get, get, get a bid in. And then I saw the going, going, gone thing happen on the website and I thought, like, oh my God, I've got to like get in. And I bid and nobody came and top me and bid over me. And they, the, the, the auctioneer like, gaveled. It closed and I got the painting.

[Adam Monahan]

That's amazing.

[Bob Levy]

My, my heart was pounding for about an hour after that event. It was a very intense 37 seconds.

[Adam Monahan]

For those at home who don't know about how these auctions work much, how much did it hammer at? What do you wind up actually having to pay for this thing?

[Bob Levy]

Okay, so first of all, I have to say, like, I am a little embarrassed to admit how much I paid for the painting. This is a lot of money to pay for anything, let alone a work of art. But to answer your question, the auction of the lot of the painting was hammered close at my bid of $22,000. But I knew that in addition to the so called hammer price, that I would have to pay what they call the buyer's premium, which is sort of like a commission to the auction house. And in the case of this auction house, the buyer's premium was 22%, which means that ultimately I paid a grand total of $26,800.

[Adam Monahan]

26,800. You know what? I feel like this is a win for everybody because Betty on our show said 30 to 50,000 and we don't want her to look bad. So it's very nice of you to bid it all the way to $22,000.

[Bob Levy]

It was, it was my pleasure.

[Adam Monahan]

Well, thank you, Bob. I appreciate you coming on and having this conversation with me.

[Bob Levy]

Adam, I could not have been more excited to play my small, my small role in the Antiques Roadshow universe. It's a great story that I'll be telling for the rest of my life.

[Adam Monahan]

Just one question remained. I brought my co fact checker, Allison Izzo Smith into the studio. Well, the lounge to figure it out. I don't actually remember who fact checked this one. It's definitely me for sure. Me. I'm hoping we were both out that week.

[Betty Krulick]

Maybe it was Jill.

[Adam Monahan]

It is Jill who gets the blame for failing this fact check. And the credit for making this story possible. Was it me? Was it Allie? Was it our occasional replacement, Jill? The source of truth was hidden in my email. Where's my archive? It's at the top. All right, hour two. Is this me? Let's see. Tim. I did Tim Prince. Colleen Fesco painting Simeon Todd. Oh, it's you. Oh, gosh damn it. It was me.

[Betty Krulick]

I never would have made this mistake.

[Adam Monahan]

Never. Never in a million years. You would have contacted the Chicago architecture immediately. You knew better. I knew better. Well, thank you, Ally, for being the better fact checker of us all. Luckily, Marcia forgave me for this grave, grave error. And she had some sage advice.

[Marcia Bemko]

You know what's good about that kind of mistake, though, Adam? Next time you make a mistake, it'll be very different from that one. You won't make that mistake again. I know. Love is not a walk in the park.

[Adam Monahan]

It's a once super century store. Antiques Roadshow Detours is a production of GBH in Boston and distributed by P. Rex. This episode was written and produced by Galen Beebe, edited and mixed by Tyler Morissette. Our assistant producer is Sarah Roach. Our senior producer is Ian Coss, and Devin Maverick Robbins is the managing producer of podcasts for gbh. Marcia Bemko is the executive producer of Antiques Roadshow Detours, and I'm your host and co executive producer, Adam Monahan. Our theme music is Once in a Century Storm by Will Daly from the album National Throat. Thank you all for listening. Have a good one.

You can find all episodes of Antiques Roadshow Detours wherever you are listening right now. And in my opinion, at least Adam and Marcia never disappoint. Enjoy.

[Bob Levy]

Gbh.

[Adam Monahan]

Hey, I want to make sure that you know this series you're listening to right now is part of an ongoing feed telling stories from the past to help us understand our present. Our first season is all about infrastructure. The second season is about gambling. And we've got more seasons planned. So if you want to stay on top of what the team and I are doing, go ahead and follow or subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen. We've got some really exciting stories coming up and I hope you'll stay with us. Thanks.

From prx.