Antiques Roadshow coming to Carolina
Tickets are free but must be obtained in advance

By Jeff Eason

If you’ve ever seen the popular PBS television program Antiques Roadshow, you’ve probably looked at one of your old paintings or hand-me-down pieces of jewelry and wondered if it might be worth a fortune.

PBS announced this week that Antiques Roadshow will make a stop in Raleigh, North Carolina, this year as part of its summer 2009 Tour destinations. The show will come to Raleigh’s new convention center on Saturday, June 27. The stop is one of only ten that the show will make this summer.

Programs taped in those locations will make up Antique Roadshow’s 14th season on PBS, airing in 2010.

The show’s stop in Raleigh will feature a series of local events where top appraisers in a variety of antique fields offer the public free evaluations of antiques and collectables.

Admission to the events in Raleigh is free, but tickets are required and must be obtained in advance. Complete ticketing rules became available on Monday, January 5 on the Internet at www.pbs.org/antiques, or by calling toll-free 1-888-762-3749.

Ticket recipients will be selected at random from all eligible entries. Ticket holders will then be invited to bring two items for a free verbal evaluation by experts from the world’s leading auction houses and by independent appraisers and dealers. All ticket holders are guaranteed an appraisal.

Antiques Roadshow, now in its 13th season on PBS, is aired on Mondays at 8 p.m. as part of the UNC-TV programming, and can be seen locally on Charter Cable channel 13. It is viewed by almost ten million viewers each week.

This week Antiques Roadshow opened its 13th broadcast season with an episode from Palm Springs where experts discovered the most valuable item ever appraised on the show: a 1937 painting by noted American abstract expressionist Clyfford Still, received as a housewarming gift from friends of the artist. Appraisers at the show conservatively estimated the painting to be worth $500,000.