A classic instalment of Antiques Roadshow this weekend will show how one expert was caught off-guard when evaluating a piece of Olympic history – so much so, he failed to slap a price tag on the item.
The repeat episode originally aired in September 2023, but fans will have the chance to re-live the Glasgow-based edition on Sunday.
The moment saw expert Jamie Russell beaming as he admitted he never expected to see an Olympic Torch at the show.
“Before I came here today to the Roadshow, I had a long list of items in my head that I thought I might see that would appear out of boxes and bags in front of me… But one of them was definitely not an Olympic Torch,” he commented.
“I wonder if you can tell us how you came to own this,” he requested to guest and former reporter Gavin Bell, who explained the interesting backstory of the torch in front of them.
He replied: “When I was a young lad, I was an 800-metre runner with a Glasgow club.
Antiques Roadshow guest Gavin Bell was presented the Olympic Torch in 1988
BBC
“So of course, as a boy I dreamed of running in the Olympics one day and then eventually, the dream came true in a way I’d never have expected.
“I was posted to South Korea in advance of the 1988 Games for The Times. While I was there, I met a couple of young English lads who’d been appointed to do the public relations for the torch relay.
“And they found out about my athletic background, and invited me to carry the torch on the first day I arrived in Korea.”
The former running enthusiast quipped: “I have no doubt, of course, they were well aware they’d get good publicity – and sure enough, The Times used the story on the front page.”
Gavin Bell told the Antiques Roadshow expert he couldn’t ‘accept’ any money
BBC
“It’s fantastic and really amazing to see one here, in rainy Glasgow,” Russell remarked.
“And what’s also great as a valuer is, not only do we know from how it looks what it is, but it tells us right here,” he continued, alluding to the plaque on the torch which read: “Presented to Gavin Bell. Torch Bearer. XXIVth Olympiad. Seoul 1988.”
“We know it was made obviously in 1988, (it) travelled from Olympia in Greece, where the procession started and then all the way to the Olympic Stadium,” the arts and sculpture specialist continued.
He went on: “If we look at the actual object itself it’s a really lovely piece of design.
“Starting at the bottom here, we have this scrolled leather handle, and then the red cross piece here and the very distinctive Olympic rings here that we all know.
“And around the top here, that marks it more as Korean, we have these crossing dragons in mythical figures and these here signify unity between the east and the west.”
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Antiques Roadshow expert Jamie Russell ended up not giving a valuation
BBC
Summarising, he continued: “It’s such an iconic item.”
Before he could start revealing the valuation, Bell interjected with an unusual ask.
“I mean, I can’t accept money for it… I’m an amateur,” he admitted, stopping the expert in his track before he could put a monetary valuation on the special item.
“Yeah, one to hold on to,” Russell agreed without sharing any suggestion of what the potential financial sum it could fetch.
Instead, happy to leave the interaction there, Bell bid farewell.