Antiques Roadshow guest had items worth $26,000 that were so offensive they couldn’t be broadcast
Topics: BBC, Film and TV, Fashion
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: Robert Needs/Wales Online
Topics: BBC, Film and TV, Fashion
You don't often associate the BBC classic Antiques Roadshow with offensive items, but one guest's item worth a whopping $26,000 was never shown on the programme due to its inappropriate nature.
Known for uncovering the stories and monetary value behind hidden treasures, the British TV show has seen some incredible finds over the years.
From a host of the show refusing to value an item after learning about its unsettling history to an expert drinking from an 180-year-old bottle, Antiques Roadshow is certainly action packed.
Robert Needs' item didn't even make it to air last year after his vintage punk fashion was deemed unsuitable to include in the show after Robert turned up to filming in Cardiff.
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Robert partridge partied with the Sex Pistols back in the 1970s, and purchased the unique clothing from a shop then known as Sex, which was run by renowned fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, Sex Pistols manager and her partner at the time.
After Robert brought the items of clothing along to Antiques Roadshow, the show's expert Lisa Lloyd dubbed them as 'Incredibly un-PC', before valuing his collection of 20 t-shirts at around $1,350 each.
As per the BBC, Robert said: "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.
"But that was the whole point of it back then, they were intended to be controversial."
The items of clothing is a stark reminder for Robert of what times were like back then and his visit to Sex in London.
The now 69-year-old, from Newport, Wales, said: "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.
"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."
While the t-shirts might fetch a lot, Robert seemingly has no interest in selling them.
He added: "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."