GUEST: We bought this particular piece at an estate auction about 30 years ago.
APPRAISER: Mm-hmm. Uh-huh.
GUEST: What attracted me to the piece was its uniqueness and design.
APPRAISER: And what did you pay for it then?
GUEST: We paid $12 for this particular piece.
APPRAISER: $12, uh-huh, uh-huh. Well, it turns out, you know, it's what we call a Vienna bronze. It was made in Austria around the turn of the century. It's interesting that it's not marked, but most of these are done by what was called the Bergmann Foundry. And many of them were actually sculpted by Bergmann, himself. And he developed this process of casting bronze, and then we call this cold painting. Most bronzes have a patina on it that's put on with acid, various chemicals, acids with heat. Whereas, this is actually painted with oil paint, once, once the bronze is finished. And they liked to do these Middle Eastern figures. Sometimes we see exotic dancers. This rug merchant who is standing here displaying his wares. These are very popular collectibles. And the value is quite different from what you paid for it. At auction, a piece like this now would bring between $2,000 and $3,000.
GUEST: Is that correct?
APPRAISER: Yup, yup. Yeah, so you made a great, great buy.
GUEST: My goodness.