Fiona Bruce was almost dumbfounded when an Irishman presented a one-of-a-kind Muhammed Ali artwork on Antiques Roadshow.
When the late heavyweight fighter visited Mike’s restaurant in 2003 for the Special Olympics, he drew on a serviette and gave him permission to preserve the drawing.
Raj Bisram, an expert on the BBC programme, predicted today (Sunday, January 21) that the artwork, which includes food marks where Ali had wiped his lips, might bring between £6,000 and £8,000.
Fiona, 59, observed after viewing the serviette: “Of all the things we might see today…” That’s why I enjoy this work. You never know what someone will bring along. And this has really blown me away.
‘But wow! What a brilliant, brilliant thing. You lucky man.’
Before the valuation, Raj, 68, had asked the restaurateur how he had come into possession of the item.
He explained: ‘One night I got a phone call to my restaurant where I work for a table of eight people for Muhammed Ali.
‘And Muhammed Ali’s wife asked me could if I cut up the steak for him because he couldn’t use his hands.
‘So I said to our chef, “Will you cut them up for Muhammed Ali, but put them back together nicely?”
‘So when I put it down in front of him, Muhammed Ali’s wife said to me: “I thought you were going to cut them up.” I said, “They are.” And she was very impressed by the presentation.’
Mike stated that Ali gently requested if he could draw on the serviette, and he agreed by giving him a pen to write with in the hopes that he may save the sketch.
He continued: ‘I put the bill on the table and I said to his wife, “Can I take the napkin? So she said, “Of course you can have it. You’ve done such a wonderful job and we are very impressed.”
Mike also quipped that the serviette had Ali’s DNA and pointed to various spots where the heavyweight champion had wiped food off his lips.
Raj said that the sketch was named The Guiding Light, which Ali had first done in 1979 and had copied countless times since.
Earlier this month, the Antiques Roadshow team was astounded by family artefacts related to the Royal family.
The guy who owns the goods said that they came from his ancestor, Jock, who helped save King James V’s life.
‘In the 14th century on the outskirts on Edinburgh in a place called Cramond, one day he heard a commotion on a bridge and saw a man on horseback being attack so he ran to the bridge and helped fend off the attackers and then took the man into his house and bathed his wounds,’ he began when re-telling the incredible story.
‘Long story short, it turned out he had saved the life of King James V, and as a simple farmer he was then gifted land by the King.
‘But a condition of that was that he and his ancestors must be available to the King and his ancestors if ever called on again at Cramond.’
Fast forward to 1822, when George IV visited Scotland on his royal tour, descendants of the family presented the King with a basin of water, as James V had asked three hundred years before.
A ritual hand washing followed, representing the cleaning of the wounds.
The actual water used in the ritual, as well as the two pots, were shown in a glass jar on the show.
Antiques Roadshow continues on Sunday at 7pm on BBC One and iPlayer.
Source My Celebrity Life.