While we all have junk lurking in cupboards that could do with a good clear out, few can anticipate finding multi-million pound lost artworks hiding in plain sight.
But for Simon and Adity Crawford, who feature in a new TV show assessing the homes of hoarders to find out what riches they may have hidden, this is exactly their reality.
And to their shock, they learn an old, overlooked painting hanging in a guest bedroom may be a worth as much as £2 million.
The couple gave up high powered jobs in the City to take on Simon’s family seat – a 700-year-old castle in Scotland.
While it might sound romantic, the harsh reality of the responsibility of maintaining an A-listed historic building is one of constant financial burden.
Spiralling costs and the struggle of finding the cash to carry out repairs to the castle have now seen Simon and Adity call in the team from Millionaire Hoarders.
A cast of experts includes Clive Downham, an Antiques Dealer; vintage fashion and interiors expert Paula Sutton; Rachel Fox, high-end pawnbroker; and expert in collectables and curiosities, Ronnie Archer-Morgan.
The group sifts through the homes of owners who are asset rich but cash poor in the hope of finding items that might sell for serious money at auction.
“We are not collectors, we are actually hoarders,” Simon Crawford tells Ronnie and Clive, “It’s just nobody’s ever thrown anything out.”
At Craufordland Castle Ronnie and Clive are stunned to find a painting hanging behind a TV in one of the guest bedrooms – Ronnie is sure the work is a Constable.
The most expensive painting ever sold in the UK was a work by John Constable that went for £22.4 million at auction but, the expert says, Constables are “notoriously difficult” to authenticate.
Simon is unconvinced; he previously had the work appraised by a local art expert and was told it was a fake.
Ronnie, however, has a gut feeling that this is the real deal and seeks to explore the origins of the painting further.
He initially takes the work to a gallery in London to a John Constable expert there and finds further evidence that this really could be a work by the great artist.
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Ronnie finds out more about the origins of the painting in paperwork held at the castle and discovers it had been sold to a previous Crawford from the collection of renowned Old Masters art collector JP Heseltine.
The painting, if it is a Constable, is first valued at between £800,000 and £1.2 million but further exploration and a few twists later and that figure is revised to a life-changing £1 to £2 million – if it’s real.
Adity says it wasn’t until just before she was due to meet the parents that Simon happened to mention his mother and father lived in a castle.
Slightly taken aback on viewing the 35-bedroom home, she recalls saying to her then-boyfriend’s mum, “Nice house, Mrs Crawford.”
The couple talk of the financial burden of running the property - £80,000 in annual insurance and a £1300 a month heating bill included.
They use the castle as a commercial venture but are hoping to make the business financial viable enough that their daughters can “choose a career here or choose to have a career outside”.
Some of those featured in the show struggle to part with their beloved possessions, even if doing so means accessing the money they need to achieve their ambitions.
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For Simon and Adity, Craufurdland contains precious items that have as much sentimental and historic worth as they do financial – and these they won’t part with.
Crawfords have lived at Craufordland since 1245 when the land was gifted to Archibald Crawford for his services as an armourer to Mary, Queen of Scots.
Simon shows the camera a document with Mary’s handwriting and signature – one of the items he believes is vital to keep.
He is, however, ready to say goodbye to a hotel guestbook that a relative some generations before had bought from a hotel in Switzerland.
The hotel had some interesting and famous visitors and Simon shows Clive an entry signed by Charles Dickens.
Clive comes up with the idea of approaching the current owner of the Swiss hotel and offering to sell the book back to them.
The ploy is a success and the owner, who is delighted, arranges to drive to Scotland to collect the guest book personally – and pay £2000 for it.
Also a cause of great excitement to Clive is a hand written note signed by Robert Burns.
The sheet of paper has some scribbled numbers, an invoice for wine and a short epitaph thought to be early inspiration for Grizzle Grim – with lewd content – written on the back.
A Burns expert, Professor Gerard Carruthers, assesses the paper and notes that the two different styles of writing the letter D strongly indicate this is an authentic Burns document.
He says: “No forger would know to do that. There isn’t a snowballs chance in hell this isn’t authentic.”
A final work found in the castle is a painting by Marlow that, when examined, is believed to have been painted in the late 1700s.
The Channel 4 series from the production company 141, Millionaire Hoarders, airs on Friday, August 4.
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