Golden Venture Paper Sculptures, ca. 1995
APPRAISER: Tell us what you brought in today to share with our viewers.
GUEST: Two pieces of Golden Venture prison art. Golden Venture was a ship that was bringing immigrants in and it ran aground in New York. I think a few drowned and the rest were taken to different detention centers to be held until it was decided if they would be deported or if they would be granted entry into the country.
APPRAISER: You bought these when?
GUEST: We were thinking about ten years ago at an auction in York, Pennsylvania, which is where many of them were held.
APPRAISER: Well, this was a very, very well-known and controversial news story. Uh, the Golden Venture was a ship that started out in China and was holding 286 Chinese dissidents.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: In 1993, the ship ran aground 300 yards from shore, right off of Fort Tilburg. There was panic. It was 2:00 in the morning, it was pitch dark, and a lot of them jumped overboard. Ten of them drowned and a few of them actually got away, never to be seen again. What we're talking about today revolves around the dissidents that were sent to York, Pennsylvania prison. And they were held there for various amounts of time while their cases were determined and what they're going to do with these prisoners. Around 50 remained in prison, and finally in 1997, were ordered to be released by President Clinton. These pieces of the Golden Venture were done at the prison, and they were done for two reasons. Number one, these people were very proud and they were done to raise some money to pay for their legal expenses. They were also done to prevent boredom. There was no glue. It was strictly folded paper. Reports are that they made upward of about 10,000 pieces.
GUEST: Oh, my gosh, I had no idea.
APPRAISER: Yeah, very, very interesting. Bowls, baskets-- later on, they did much larger pieces.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And I'll share something with you. I still have eight pieces.
GUEST: Do you?
APPRAISER: I do. And they're very meaningful to me.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: We keep one of them on our mantle as a reminder of this, this journey, this plight...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...of these dissidents. Some of them had violated the one-child law and, uh, they were scheduled to be sterilized.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: So they were seeking asylum, uh, for those reasons. And it became a real political football.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: This hard surface, what they did is they used soap and water and they made almost like a mâché out of toilet paper.
GUEST (laughing): Okay, good to know.
APPRAISER: And soap and water, and they allowed it to dry out and harden. And you can see, printing on there...
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: ...because they cut up magazines and newspapers to do this.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: And you also see the ghost image of what used to be on there. A label-- all of mine have labels on it.
GUEST: They had the names of the prisoners who made them.
APPRAISER: Yes.
GUEST: My husband removed it.
APPRAISER: Yes, they all were named.
GUEST: The other one was underneath.
APPRAISER: So what did you pay for them?
GUEST: No more than $20 each.
APPRAISER: We don't see them come up that often. I do see them trade from time to time, and typically, they're in the $300 to $400 range.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: So they're, they're innocent numbers, but the story...
GUEST: But they're interesting.
APPRAISER: ...is so profound. And are you going to keep these?
GUEST: Oh, yes, we have them displayed. This one's in our bedroom all the time and this one's in our living room.
$600 - $800 Retail
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Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
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