Bargain Hunt star Irita Marriott had one show guest in tears (Image: BBC)
Bargain Hunt star Irita Marriott had one guest on her Discovery+ show in tears as she managed to auction off an item for more than “100 times its value”. The BBC antique expert was presenting her own show The Derbyshire Auction House when she met up with mother and son duo Helen and Ben, searching their home for hidden gem items.
She was eventually presented with a series of family photos from Helen, who explained that the collection included original signed images from famous photographers dating back to 1975. They included works from Graham Smith and Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, whose works are now displayed in the Tate Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
There was a tragic twist in the tale as the photos were being auctioned off in order to pay for Helen’s husband’s care.
Her husband Alan was suffering from dementia at the time and needed full-time care, though he sadly died before the episode went to air – and the money was instead used to pay for his funeral.
Alan inherited the photos when he worked for a regional arts association as a promoter of cinema and photography, and had left them hanging up in his hallway.
The mum and son duo were in tears on the Derbyshire Auction House (Image: Discovery )
The photos were sold individually, with one given an estimated value of between £80 and £120. But a fierce bidding war in the auction room saw it sell for a whopping £12,000 – leaving Helen in tears.
Irita commented at the time: “It can’t be easy for them. These items are things that they’ve lived with all their lives, and now that Alan’s gone into care, it’s probably going to be really sad to see them go.”
Ben said of the photographs: “I was absolutely gobsmacked at the values people were willing to bid for what we thought were just nice pictures… that we saw on the wall every day. Absolutely brilliant.”
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