Antiques Roadshow's jug gaffe vexed me – if only it had been the UK show

The US spinoff’s mistaken valuation shows up what’s wrong with the BBC flagship. Where once the Beeb encouraged art for its own sake, here profit is king

I have to confess to sheer delight at the mistake made by a hapless Antiques Roadshow “expert”. Examining a comically primitivist pot brought in for valuation on the popular and venerable television show, appraiser Stephen L Fletcher got quite excited. He identified it as a daring early modernist work from the 19th century. He even discerned “a little bit of, like, Pablo Picasso going on here”.

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