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And Finally Artist News
Marvin Gaye’s 1964 Motown passport gets $20,000 Antiques Roadshow valuation
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 6 February 2014
Did you know there was a US edition of ‘The Antiques Roadshow’? I didn’t. It’s basically the same as the British version, but it has Americans on it. And because they don’t really have old stuff in America, people bring in things that are interesting instead.
On this week’s edition, a man brought in Marvin Gaye’s passport from 1964, which he found tucked inside an old record sleeve. The man made the discovery after buying a collection of memorabilia from the family of a deceased former Motown artist, which went on sale after records in the haul were rejected as donations to the Motown Museum.
“I was going through them and out of an album fell this passport,” the buyer explained. “It literally fell into my hands”.
The man said he originally paid 50 cents for the record which held the passport, so was surprised to be told the document itself was worth $20,000. Pop culture memorabilia expert Laura Woolley told him: “Passport collecting is a really vibrant world because there’s usually only a few of them throughout your life”. She also added that people like them because they know the signatures are genuine.
So that’s a fun thing. Here’s a video of the valuation unfurling:
