GUEST: Christmas of 1978.

My mother and dad decided that instead of giving us a bunch of stuff that wouldn't last, they would give us some art.

And so, these four squares are a sculpture from Carl Andre.

And of course, when they gave them to me, I had no idea who Carl Andre was.

(chuckles) I took them back to college with me.

I took them to graduate school after that.

When I tried to explain it to, to my fraternity brothers or friends, they said, "they look like drink coasters to me," (chuckling): and they have been used... as-- as drink coasters.

Came back, moved back to Savannah, got married, had four children, and I sort of forgot about it.

And then, last year, I read in The New York Times that he, that he died, and so I remembered that I had them.

APPRAISER: So, they are by Carl Andre.

He was the leading minimalist artist.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And we're showing them this way, but, let's show the way it's really supposed to look.

GUEST: I have the receipt, but I don't have it with me.

The picture with the receipt has a picture of it arranged like that.

So, I've assumed that that's the way it was meant to be.

APPRAISER: His work is meant to be flat on the ground.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And the larger works can be ten, 15-feet square.

He felt that people should be able to walk on them.

GUEST: Wow.

APPRAISER: This Minimalist movement, it was a reaction against Abstract Expressionism, and the idea was to reduce art to the most simple, basic forms.

He was very prominent.

He had exhibitions in major museums-- the Guggenheim, the Tate.

He's quite controversial in his personal life.

GUEST: I read a little bit about that in the... APPRAISER: You read about it.

GUEST: ...in the, in the "Times" obituary.

APPRAISER: Right.

Carl's wife was Ana Mendieta, and she was a very prominent Cuban artist.

She was well known for her "earth-body" series.

His wife died, and he was tried for secondary murder.

And, uh, he was acquitted.

But many, many people in the art world felt that he was guilty.

And-and as a result, every time he showed after that-- this was in the 1980s-- there'd be huge protests saying that... GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: ...he really was guilty.

He went off to Europe, he-he stopped showing, and his career was really in decline.

Do you know who your father bought it from?

GUEST: After I got more interested in it, I found out that the art director had introduced him to a friend of his, Angela Westwater, in-in New York.

APPRAISER: Mm-hmm.

And she was a very prominent art dealer at that time.

GUEST: Right, right.

APPRAISER: So, uh, it has that really great provenance.

And I understand you have some, you have all the materials... GUEST: I-I do-- we-we do.

And-and I can't remember how much he might have paid for 'em.

If I had to guess, I'd probably say maybe $2,000 or $3,000.

APPRAISER: Mm, yeah.

His work is very desirable, very, very collectible.

I think an insurance valuation would be in the $10,000 range.

GUEST: Probably shouldn't use them as drink coasters anymore.

(laughs) APPRAISER: Unless it's a really fine wine.

GUEST: (laughs)