GUEST: I bought this painting about 25 years ago in an antique/thrift store in Whittier, California.
APPRAISER: Was it framed then or...
GUEST: It was framed, but not in this frame. I acquired this frame at a yard sale a couple of blocks from my house.
APPRAISER: Oh, gee, well, you have quite good luck, I'm thinking. What did you pay for it?
GUEST: I bought it for $700 on payments when I bought it.
APPRAISER: Oh, my, $700! So you must have liked it quite a bit.
GUEST: I thought it was beautiful. I liked the subject and I just thought I wanted to buy it.
APPRAISER: Well, it's a lovely Olaf Wieghorst painting. Let me tell you a little bit about the artist. He was born in Denmark in the late 19th century, and in 1918 he moved to the United States. And for a while he settled in the Southwest doing odd jobs-- cowboy jobs, military jobs. Wieghorst spent an awful lot of time in New York City. He moved there in the '20s and was a mounted police officer in Central Park.
GUEST: Wow.
APPRAISER: So, while he's known for his absolutely wonderful Western scenes, he spent a good bit of his career in New York City. He was always interested in horses and scenes of the old West. And when he retired in the '40s, he did move to California and continue his career painting scenes of the Southwest. It's a lovely example of his work. I like the fact that the background has been kept open. It gives the piece a more contemporary feel. The painting is oil on canvas, and this monogram references a ranch that he worked at when he came over to the United States early on. He began using the monogram in 1923. I don't want to commit to a specific date for the painting because he did have a very long and prolific career, but I think we're looking mid-20th century. It's a contemporary frame, but a vaguely Southwestern-style frame from the 1930s or '40s. So it complements the painting very well.
GUEST: I only paid five dollars for the frame and it fit perfectly.
APPRAISER: So I gave you kind of a hard time about how much you paid for it.
GUEST: It was a lot of money back then.
APPRAISER: Well, it's a lot more money now.
GUEST: Wonderful.
APPRAISER: For retail, I would estimate the painting at between $20,000 and $30,000.
GUEST: Wow. Now my wife can retire.
