1 day Ago By Bethany Whittingham
Antiques Road Trip star Irita Marriott has lifted the lid on one household item that could be worth “millions” and is found in most homes up and down the country. The BBC presenter has become a regular presenter and antiques expert on Antiques Road Trip, Antiques Roadshow, and Bargain Hunt. The TV personality is regularly seen appraising and selling items for a profit at auction as well as appraising guests family heirlooms that have been collecting dust in people attics.
Now, the Latvian dealer is returning to our screens with a bang with a second series of her REALLY daytime show which is set to hit the airwaves on May 5. In an exclusive inter with Express.co.
uk, the 40-year-old broadcaster has revealed that Ikea furniture is now selling in the US for “millions” at auction. She told us: “Honestly some of those early pieces have sold in American in auctions and they’ve made a lot of money. They’ve made a lot, a lot of money, it’s absolutely bonkers.
“When it comes to Ikea furniture in particular, you wouldn’t expect it to always survive. In a hundred years, let’s be fair, there ain’t going to be a lot of it around because it wouldn’t have survived generations after generations like brown furniture does which is hardy and well made. “But the early pieces, they are still part of history no matter how it’s made.
It’s still part of that brand new generation of flat pack furniture and the designs that they came up with, they were actually quite cool. “They were very forward-thinking in their own way when you think back to the 50s. And, like I said, there might be provenance because it's yours.
So you never know, you might find Elton John ’s Ikea desk somewhere once and even though it’s Ikea, it will be worth a heck of a lot of money.” The mum-of-two went on to reveal that despite being an antiques dealer, even she has some pieces of Ikea furniture in her family home. She revealed: "I love nothing more than spending a day with a piece of flatpack furniture from Ikea, although saying that, it’s been quite a few years since I’ve done it.
"I think we have three shelving units from Ikea, and they’re all because of my kids, so I blame that one on them. In a way I can understand why people got to Ikea because it’s affordable, it’s practical, but at the same time if you go to an auction you could buy a piece of furniture that is already 100 years old and will last you another 100 for a fraction of the price." Irita talked further about Ikea furniture sales in the US on the Things People Do podcast, adding: "The first couple of years of production from Kiea furniture can now fetch at auction thousands, even millions in some instances.
[Things like] desks, beds, I mean I would have never, ever imagined seeing Ikea in an auction. "There’s one thing that sells antiques more than anything else, and that’s provenance. There may be evidence that you overtightened it, you put that desk together, that desk will hold value no matter what.
" The Derbyshire Auction House S2, Mondays from 5 May at 9pm on REALLY and available to stream on discovery+..
