Antiques Roadshow guest gasps at value of charity shop find before cruel twist

A guest on Antiques Roadshow was left gasping in surprise as he discovered the true value of an item he just so happened to pick up at a charity shop. During Sunday night's edition of the BBC programme (August 6), hosts Fiona Bruce and the show's antique experts gathered at Wollaton Hall in Nottingham.

During the episode, Ronnie Archer-Morgan was seen taking a look at a tribal African figure one man picked up on a whim. "When you unwrapped this, my heart really skipped a beat," Ronnie told the owner before quizzing: "It's one of my favourite tribal African figures. Where did you get it?"

It is then that the guest revealed that he had found it in a charity shop over ten years ago in Cambridge. "It was right among the junk, and it cost me the grand total of £1.50," the owner of the item revealed. "I was intrigued by the fact that it looked as if somebody had put a lot of work into making it."

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Ronnie then went on to share more details about the item with the guest and viewers as he explained: "It's from a tribe, in Gabon. They are just south of Nigeria and this is a Kota guardian figure and they put these on the bones of their ancestors to protect them. They polish this metal and in the 19th century, the brass and copper - this is just copper - but the brass and copper was like gold to them.

"They are so highly revered in the art world, that they have one of these in the Metropolitan Museum in New York. They are such iconic examples of African tribal art.

"They hammer the metal over the wood sculpture and then they chase the metal with these designs and it's the geometric design of them that makes them so desirable. They also