Antiques Roadshow crowd burst into applause at MEGA valuation for eerie snake-charmer statue

ANTIQUES Roadshow concluded last night with a staggering £80,000 valuation for an eerie 130-year-old ‘automaton’.

The moving statue of a snake charmer picked up a shock valuation that caused the assembled crowd to burst into applause.

The owner was speechless as expert Jon Baddeley told him he was sitting on an absolute goldmine.

Referring to the rudimentary robot of a lady charming a snake, the antiques guru told him: “This is considered to be one of the most important automatons ever made.

“It was made in Paris at the end of the 19th century and she’s obviously called the snake charmer.”

“It’s my family’s, from my father when he sadly passed away. When he retired he decided to collect things like this.”

Automatons – made to entertain guests a dinner parties at Paris – are very rare, with less than 15 left in the world.

They gave the figure a blast, with the music playing and the snake charmer dancing and, even more bizarrely, breathing.

Jon let the crowd stunned saying: “Prices at the moment are not as high as they have been in the past.

“If you decided to sell it today at auction you’ve been looking at between 60 and £80,000” leaving the man spluttering: “Really?”

At the valuation the assembled crowd burst into applause.

Jon said it was “probably one of the rarest automaton ever known” saying: “It’s original – and it’s in fantastic condition.”

Even Antiques Roadshow host Fiona Bruce was impressed, mentioning it as she closed the show, from Lytham in Lancashire, saying: “What about that?

Have you ever seen the likes of anything like that snake charmer automaton? And worth up to 80,000. What a great way to end the programme.”

Elsewhere in the show fans got to see a Barbie doll that was worth more than £1,000 – leaving its owner reeling.