GUEST: I was coming back from eight years of Navy assignments back to my home here in Virginia Beach. My tenant was moving out. He said, "I have this lovely statue that's in the yard here. Would you like to buy it from me?" And I love dogs, and I said, "Yes, I'd love to have it. What would you like me to pay for it?" He said, "Well, you can have it for $2,000." And this was in 1990, and we've had it ever since in the yard. I don't know anything about the artist, really, but there is an inscription on the base here. It says that it won a prize, a gold medal, in France in 1882. So obviously, it's been around a while. But it doesn't really tell you anything else. At least, I haven't been able to find anything. I sent some pictures to a gallery in New York, and I was informed that there were two other identical statues in the United States, and that one had sold for $14,000. And that the second one, which actually was located at Hyde Park, the Roosevelt home on the Hudson, and it had sold for $40,000. And I'm sure a lot of that was due to the Roosevelt name.
APPRAISER: Well, it's quite wonderful. So you're right, in the front, it has the artist's name, so it's Victor Chemin. And he was a French artist working in Paris. He was born in 1825 and died in 1901. And was pretty active. So he entered this model in a salon in 1882. He exhibited in salons for nearly 40 years. So he was a very busy man. He tended to work more with domestic animals and more pleasing, less ferocious scenes. It has a very green patina. Obviously it's been outside for a long time.
GUEST: Is that something that harms it, having been outside?
APPRAISER: It changes the surface, the chemistry of the surface.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: The other examples that I've been able to find that have come up have had similar. It's a little bit large to put inside your living room.
GUEST (laughing): Well, that's, that is a problem.
APPRAISER: So provenance plays a big role of sometimes in what things ultimately sell for. So who owned something may be as important or more important than what it is.
GUEST: Exactly.
APPRAISER: There are very few examples that have come up, at least recorded on the market. I didn't find the version from Hyde Park. There's another version with good provenance, so I think there may be a little... a little combination of stories. But if I had to provide an auction estimate in today's market, I would say between $20,000 and $30,000.
GUEST: Thank you very much. That's amazing, really. It's a fantastic piece. Terrific, thank you.
