GUEST: I acquired this sculpture at a yard sale in 2001.
APPRAISER: What ultimately made you buy it?
GUEST: Well, I'm a sculptor, and I recognized that it was interesting conceptually...
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.
GUEST: ...and that it was very well made.
APPRAISER: Ai Weiwei was born in China. His father was a very, very famous poet there who ran up against the revolution, and really had a very tough go at it. Ai Weiwei came to New York in the 1980s, so he's well into his 30s, and he was very active in the New York art scene at the time, being come friendly with people like Andy Warhol, and becoming generally aware of contemporary American art at that time.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: That's very, very different from the traditional, academic Chinese art tradition that he came out of. This was in Ai Weiwei's first show in New York City in 1988. The piece is signed and dated on the back, "Ai Weiwei, 1988." He was just starting out his career. He's probably one of the most famous artists in the world today. I mean, he's very active not only as a sculptor, but as a photographer, as an archivist. So he's very, very active, and he, uh, uh, very importantly, he's involved in various humanitarian efforts and human rights issues. And he's still alive, and he does events and projects all over the world. But he's the most prominent Chinese artist living today. You said the title of this is?
GUEST: "One Man's Shoe."
APPRAISER: Right, so, and it was in an exhibition. Do you, you know the name of the exhibition?
GUEST: "Old Shoes, Safe Sex," I believe.
APPRAISER: That's right. The "safe sex" actually refers to the AIDS crisis. There were about five of these that were made.
GUEST: Mm.
APPRAISER: And some of them were actually sold. Although Ai Weiwei was not very happy with the results of the show.
GUEST: Mm.
APPRAISER: And at one point, he said he was going to give up making art. And do you know about why shoes, leather shoes are important to Ai Weiwei? Did you read about that?
GUEST: My understanding, the shoes were a gift from his mother that felt that a good pair of men's dress shoes was appropriate for a young man in New York City.
APPRAISER: That's right, but in China, leather shoes seem to have been very, very rare. They were maintained. So they kept constantly being resoled and resewn, so that they could be used. And Ai Weiwei picks up a number of these things from his past, and incorporates it in this piece. So you have the shoes, leather shoes that are very, very rare, and then they're sewn together, which refers to taking a, we call these found objects. There was a movement in the early 20th century called Dadaism.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: The most prominent artist was Marcel Duchamp.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And he took everyday items and transformed them into works of art.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And Ai Weiwei's done this here. The sewing aspect may actually refer to China's position in the world as a manufacturer of clothing.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: So, there are all these references that are incorporated in what seems like a very simple presentation. I spoke to the dealer who sold this in 1988. He was really quite amazed that this would show up in a yard sale in New Jersey. When this was originally sold, it sold for $1,800 in 1988.
GUEST: Hm, mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Which was a fair amount of money.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: Whoever bought this was a sophisticated collector...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...would've known Ai Weiwei. So the question is, again, how did it wind up in New Jersey, and what did you pay for this?
GUEST: I believe it was $30.
APPRAISER: His work is, is fairly rare. At this moment, the contemporary Chinese art market is not that strong, but this is counterbalanced by Ai Weiwei's fame as an internationally...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...uh, respected artist.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: In a gallery setting, this piece would probably sell for about $100,000.
GUEST: (chuckles) Very good.
APPRAISER: Yeah.
