The classic BBC show, Antiques Roadshow, isn’t typically linked with contentious items, yet one participant’s $26,000 artifact wasn’t featured on the program because it was deemed inappropriate.
Renowned for revealing the history and financial worth of hidden gems, the British television series has uncovered some astonishing discoveries over time.
The show has had its share of captivating moments, such as a host declining to appraise an item due to its disturbing past or an expert sampling from a 180-year-old bottle, making Antiques Roadshow quite the eventful program.
Robert Needs’ submission never aired last year after his vintage punk attire was considered unsuitable when he attended the filming in Cardiff.
Back in the 1970s, Robert partied with the Sex Pistols and acquired the original attire from a store then called Sex, operated by well-known fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, the Sex Pistols’ manager and her partner at the time.
Upon presenting the clothing to Antiques Roadshow, expert Lisa Lloyd described them as ‘incredibly un-PC,’ estimating his collection of 20 t-shirts to be about $1,350 each.
According to Robert’s statement to the BBC, “They told me they couldn’t show most of them on camera. I shouldn’t really be that shocked though because a lot of Westwood’s designs were deliberately very provocative, with plenty of nudity or imagery which could be considered offensive – like Nazi swastikas, for example.”
He added, “But that was the whole point of it back then, they were intended to be controversial.”
These garments remind Robert of the era and his visit to the shop in London.
The 69-year-old from Newport, Wales, mentioned, “There was already a ready-made punk scene going on in south Wales at the time, except we called ourselves ‘soul boys’ – the term ‘punk’ was more something the media came up with later on.”
He continued, “And it was during a visit to Sex that we met the lads from the Pistols.”
“They were amazed to hear they had a lot of Welsh fans back home because they’d drawn mostly hostile reactions whilst playing in other parts of the UK.”
Though the t-shirts could be quite valuable, Robert seems uninterested in parting with them.
He explained, “I don’t really want to sell them – I’d much rather they went on display in a gallery somewhere, as long as they were all safe and properly insured.”
“It’d be lovely to think of them getting a second lease of life and others getting the same enjoyment out of looking at them as I had wearing them.”