In June of 2001, a soft-spoken old guy named Ted Kuntz hit the old guy lottery when he brought his grandmother's blanket to an Antiques Roadshow taping and discovered that it had more than just sentimental value.
According to Kuntz, his grandmother had received it from a frontiersman that she grew up with, who had in turn received it as a gift from characteristically problematic Old West legend Kit Carson. Kuntz had no way of knowing that the textile he was bringing to the Tucson, Arizona showroom was actually a Navajo First Phase Ute chief's blanket, dating back to the 1800s and estimated at the time to be worth between $350,000 and $500,000. PBS viewers across the country cried into their tote bags as a gentleman's life was forever changed.
But what happened next? And why was it so valuable to begin with? According to Arizona Public Media, Kuntz decided pretty quickly that he couldn't preserve the blanket properly, given the realization of just how much it was worth. He wound up selling the piece to an anonymous buyer who had it placed in the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Kuntz, meanwhile, used the money from the sale to pay off the home where he and his wife Virginia lived. Otherwise, though, it didn't seem to really affect his life that uch, as Kuntz revealed that he decided to keep working and didn't retire until he was 74.
The blanket was so valuable in the first place because of its rarity and historical importance. According to PBS, Navajo wool blankets were the result of a particular period of the tribe's existence. The act of herding sheep for wool only made it to the Navajo in the mid-17th century via Spanish settlers and explorers, and they picked up weaving from the Pueblo around the turn of the 18th century. A few decades of refinement later, and Navajo blankets had become the gold standard in their field: by the 1860s, they sold for between $100 and $150, or around half the price of a house.
Adding to its rarity, the Antiques Roadshow piece was what's called a "first phase" blanket. Navajo blankets are grouped into three phases of production, with the first phase spanning between the 1820s and around 1865. First phase blankets, as displayed on the show, are recognizable by their blue, brown, and white striped patterns, and only around fifty of them exist today.
The Kuntz family's windfall on Antiques Roadshow also led to another person getting rich. According to NBC News, Loren Krytzer was struggling to make ends meet after losing a leg in a car accident. That's when he happened to see Kuntz and his blanket on Antiques Roadshow and realized that he had one of those blankets too! Krytzer ended up bringing the blanket to John Moran Auctioneers, who in 2017 sold the blanket for $1.5 million.
Unfortunately, his efforts to turn his life around have hit some speed bumps since then: following an arrest in 2018 for firearms possession, he was booked again in 2020 on a number of charges.
And as for the original Kuntz blanket, well, as valuable as the blanket was, that value has been eclipsed a few times in the years since by other finds on the Antiques Roadshow. It was blown away, for instance, by a $1 million 19th century baseball card collection featuring players from the Boston Red Stockings.
And even that has been topped by a custom made Swiss Patick Phillipe pocket watch, which was originally estimated at around $250,000 back in 2004, but which has skyrocketed in value to somewhere between two and three million dollars today.
So check your attic, because who knows what treasures you might find!
#AntiquesRoadshow #NavajoBlanket
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