Thrift shopper paid $1.50 for purse; Cartier piece later valued at $35,000

A man who spent just $1.50 on a clutch bag at a thrift store discovered years later that his inexpensive find was actually a Cartier Art Deco piece valued at about $35,000.The unnamed buyer brought the bright orange velvet clutch to an episode of PBS's 'Antiques Roadshow', where it was examined by jewellery specialist Katherine Van Dell. He told her that he had bought the bag in either 2018 or 2019 simply because he liked the way it looked."I thought it was pretty," he said when asked why he had picked it up. At the time, there was little reason for him to think that the $1.50 purchase could be worth thousands of dollars.But Van Dell quickly noticed that the clutch was far from an ordinary thrift-store find. She described it as an "absolutely exquisite Art Deco purse" and began examining the decoration on its front flap.