>> beauty's in the eye of the beholder. so meet the beholders. >> these paintings just did not appeal to me. and i don't think they appealed to my wife, either. >> i said, well, i guess the salvation army is as good as anyplace. we don't want them. >> but one man's trash... >> it just knocked my socks off. >> we have $50,000. >> within a few weeks, everybody knew about it. >> ...is another's treasure. >> did you ever consider stopping? >> there is a point we all have to stop. but no. >> i'm jamie colby, and today, i'm in denver, colorado.

i'm meeting a retired couple who relocated here to be close to family. it was that move, or rather the downsizing that preceded it, that brought this inheritance surprise to light. >> my name's don camp. i don't know a thing about art, and i doubt you'll disagree when you hear about the two paintings that sat in my basement for years. >> don, phyllis, i'm jamie. >> jamie, glad to meet you. >> you have a beautiful home. don and phyllis's story starts a few years back in 2011, when don retires from his job as an electrical engineer in upstate new york. oh, they have all sorts of plans. they want to downsize. they want to travel the world, see their daughter in taiwan and work with christian charities in africa. and they want to be closer to their grandchildren in denver. so don and phyllis sell their house. how long had you been in that house? >> about 20 years.

we had accumulated a lot of stuff. >> with the move date looming, phyllis assigns don the unpleasant task of going through the basement. >> we had a path with boxes on both sides. it was a challenge. >> it's there that don rediscovers two paintings, draped under a bed sheet. >> both of them were probably the same vintage, probably 1920s, in their original frames. >> i knew about the paintings down there, because i'd covered them up with a sheet. >> did you know how you and your husband had obtained them? >> they came from don's parents, so that's all i knew. >> don inherited the paintings from his mother, lillian camp, who had died 21 years earlier in 1990. >> we weren't fond of them, and so they ended up in the basement. ♪ >> one of them is titled "arizona desert."

>> one was a landscape scene from the southwest. >> it was a nice mountain scene. didn't have any particular meaning to us, though. >> eh. the other is titled "ruth." >> it's a woman standing by a doorway and a wall, and you can't make out her features very well. and in the foreground is a pillar with a vine running up the side of it. and that's about it. >> you wanted them out. >> i even mentioned throwing them in the dumpster. >> but phyllis figures a charity will take them. >> i said, "well, i guess the salvation army is as good as anyplace. we don't want them." >> don's about to give 'em away, but hesitates. did you think they were valuable? >> had no idea. so i wanted to contact our local auctioneer and get an opinion. >> that local auctioneer is david mapes, in vestal,

new york, just west of binghamton. don sticks the paintings in the back of his van and calls david on his cell. >> what were you thinking? >> well, i see a lot of paintings come in on the back of cars, so i wasn't real excited. >> don's not getting his hopes up, either. if this doesn't pan out, his next stop -- the salvation army, that is, if he doesn't pass a dumpster along the way. then he opens the hatch to show the auctioneer. >> what happened? >> they were laid out in the back of my mini-van. and his mouth kind of dropped open. i remember his words. he said, "that's just a painting. this other one is art." >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. grant wood's "american gothic" is one of the most recognized paintings in the world. whom did wood use as his models? his plumber and the plumber's wife, his sister and his

dentist, or his own parents? the answer after the break.

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are busy packing for their move from upstate new york to denver, colorado, when they decide to get rid of two paintings don inherited from his mother decades ago. >> they were not our favorite. >> [ chuckles ] >> if we'd fallen in love with them, then i think it would have been a different story. >> on a lark, don takes them down the road to local estate appraiser david mapes. first, david eyeballs that southwestern landscape. >> it was a pleasant picture. >> pleasant? >> yeah. >> then the appraiser takes a good, long look at the woman in the red shawl. while the appraiser is staring at that painting, don is staring at the appraiser. >> and his mouth kind of dropped open. >> it just knocked my socks off. >> right in the parking lot? >> it just spoke to me. it's just one woman. you can't see her face. it's covered with a shawl. this simple, plain, exciting scene of this woman.

>> they bring the paintings inside so david can look up the signatures on his computer database. first, he types in the signature on that "pleasant" western landscape. >> karl hoerman, a german artist. >> did he tell you what he thought that one was worth? >> maybe $800. >> nothing to sneeze at. then david examines the picture of the woman in the red shawl. in the lower left-hand corner, a signature -- victor higgins. >> victor higgins. how much did you know? >> i never heard of him before. >> turns out, the guy's work sells for big bucks. >> one of his paintings sold at sotheby's for over $400,000. >> he appeals to the modern aesthetics, not only back then, but specifically today. >> mark sublette, an authority on western painting, knows all about victor higgins. born on a farm in indiana in

1884, the artist leaves home as a teenager and studies painting at the art institute of chicago. in 1913, he's one of many american artists blown away by an international exhibition of modern art called the armory show. >> you had all these cubist and impressionistic paintings coming from europe. and it really shook up the entire art world. >> the staggered american artists, including higgins, resolve to develop their own modern styles. so several artists from around the country converge in taos, new mexico -- at the time, a sleepy southwestern pueblo. >> we have crystal-clear, blue skies with wonderful light penetration. it's a perfect setup for a colony, and that was exactly what happened. >> they establish the taos society of artists. higgins travels to taos and

becomes a member. his southwest paintings are a hit with his wealthy, big-city patrons. >> higgins makes most of his money sending paintings from taos to chicago and new york. >> his work becomes even more popular after his death in 1949. back in upstate new york, appraiser david mapes shares the news with don camp. that painting he was ready to toss in a dumpster is a big deal. >> it's an unknown painting. it just popped up, and here it is. i said to him, "this is a very valuable painting," and he said, "how valuable?" i said, "well, it's going to sell for over $100,000." >> i was amazed. >> that's a good number. >> [ chuckles ] yes. >> what did you think would happen? >> i had no idea. i was just glad that they were out of the house. [ both laugh ] >> keep in mind, don and phyllis are busy clearing out their house for the move to denver. don doesn't think twice about

leaving both paintings with his eager new acquaintance. >> he wasn't counting on it being worth anything, so it's gonna be christmas, whatever it brings. >> but before david can put a painting that he hopes is worth six figures on the market, discriminating buyers will need to know a lot more. >> they may be fakes or frauds. that's the first thing as a dealer -- is it real? 'cause often, they're not. >> here's another quiz question for you. what's the name of the desert in southern new mexico? is it the chihuahuan, coyote, or sonoran desert? the answer when we return.

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it's a, the chihuahuan desert, which extends into west texas. >> in upstate new york, don and phyllis camp learn from their local estate appraiser that one of two paintings inherited from don's mother might be worth 100,000 bucks or more. >> it was good news. >> it's this portrait of an elusive pueblo woman, signed by the prominent taos school artist victor higgins. >> it's a very good field to be selling into, because a lot of collectors love that type of painting. >> first, david mapes has to appraise and authenticate the painting for auction. there are three notations on the back, written in pencil -- the name "ruth," victor higgins, and $600. >> and if you think about it, that was quite a bit of money back then. >> after decades in a dusty basement, mapes has a name and a

purchase price. but he still needs to know how "ruth" got into the hands of don's family. >> david asked me, "what's the story behind this painting?" i talked to my brother. we agreed that it must have come from our great uncle, curtis. >> why do you think he would have been interested in southwestern art? >> well, uncle curtis was a corporate attorney, as i understand, and he was on the board of the chicago art institute. >> where victor higgins studied. the appraiser concludes the painting is authentic and was likely painted in the 1920s. he knows he's about to stun the art world. you're like in the outskirts of new york. you're not in manhattan. you're not in the southwest. this is not your expertise. >> for the most part, we do estates. whenever somebody passes away, we go and take everything out that we can sell. we often find treasures in there, but not like this. it had everything going for it.

>> and when he shares his findings with art experts, he learns there's even more reason to love this painting. it turns out that ruth is a rather special lady. that's because after the 1920s, higgins switched his focus from painting human figures to landscapes. >> higgins quit doing paintings with figures. quite frankly, the pieces that are going to demand the most value in today's market are the ones with figures. >> for example, this higgins landscape sold for $130,000 in 2005. but a higgins similar to "ruth," entitled "four shawled women," sold at sotheby's for more than three times that amount, over 400 grand. that would be quite a payday. but remember, don and phyllis stuck the painting in their dusty basement for years. >> the canvas was a bit saggy, a little bit loose.

there was quite a bit of cracking in the paint. >> i'm thinking, "well, okay, maybe it'll draw $100,000." >> little does he know, mapes gets a far bigger offer for "ruth" even before he advertises the auction. david's on the road when a top dealer reaches him on his cellphone. >> he said, "i want to make you an offer before the auction." i pulled over. i said, "what's your offer?" he said, "$300,000." >> impressive. >> [ chuckles ] exactly what i said. >> even a small auction house in the middle of new york countryside, within a few weeks, it was apparent that everybody knew about it. >> mark sublette isn't surprised that big-city dealers would circle around the small-town auction house. >> generally, a painting like that's gonna go to one of the major auction houses. and as dealers, we hope that we might be able to get a bargain, quite frankly. >> did you call don? >> no, but things are going through my mind. if he wants to pay $300,000, then other people are going to

pay more. i thought about it for a short period of time, and i said, "no." >> that's risky, isn't it? >> it could be, but i was so confident in this picture and the market for it. >> next lot is the higgins. >> so, is the small-town auctioneer in over his head? >> okay. >> will savvy dealers paint him into a corner? or will ruth provide a windfall to a couple in their golden years? >> okay, we have $50,000 to start. who'll do $60,000? >> what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com.

♪look into my eyes ♪you will see ♪what you mean to me ♪don't tell me it's not worth trying for♪

♪you know it's true ♪everything i do ♪i do it for you ♪yeah, i would fight for you♪ ♪i'd lie for you ♪walk the wire for you ♪yeah, i'd die for you ♪you know it's true ♪everything i do ♪i do it for you >> now back to "strange inheritance." >> a victor higgins painting entitled "ruth" is headed for auction. art dealers are intrigued that a work by the famous taos society artist has turned up out of the blue, or, in this case, out of the basement.

>> as a dealer, we love to get pieces that are one-owner, family. it makes it more special. >> it's don and phyllis camp's strange and rather ironic inheritance. in their own words, they never cared much for ruth. >> what is it you didn't like? >> the lady looked very sad, like she was floundering. it left me with an empty feeling. >> listen, art is in the eye of the beholder. >> that's right. she's very lonely. i'm not a lonely person. >> but the lonely figure of ruth is precisely why an arizona art collector named ray harvey is so excited about the painting. >> the thing about higgins -- the figures are very rare, very hard to come by, and very much in demand. >> you were committed from the minute you saw the image? >> pretty much. >> you could say ray has a special interest in ruth. he purchased that similar higgins, entitled "four shawled women," from a private seller in 2008 for more than half a

million bucks. was there extra intrigue because no one had seen "ruth"? >> definitely. it's just so nice when a painting like that comes up undiscovered. >> ray will be out of the country when ruth goes up on the block. he makes plans to watch the auction online from a hotel in positano, italy, and bid by phone. >> as it happens, don camp and his wife, phyllis, won't be there, either. they're visiting their daughter in taiwan. did you tell your daughter, "oh, by the way, while we're here, we're auctioning these two very ugly paintings we can't wait to unload"? >> [ laughs ] yes. >> we had 10 people on the telephones, fielding bids, and then we had a number of people in the audience. >> others are booting up their computers, like ray harvey in positano, where it's 1:00 a.m. >> you're always nervous about auctions, especially when you're buying something sight unseen. >> are you already logged onto

the internet? >> well, tried to. couldn't get on. the connection was bad, and i'm thinking, "i sure hope they can get through to me." >> then, just before the bidding gets under way, ray connects by phone with the auction house in upstate new york. >> what if the phone hadn't gone through? >> it's unfortunate. you would just miss out. guys like myself, i guess the chase is a big part of it. >> the first one is the lot 97, the karl hoerman. >> first, a warm-up -- the other painting that don inherited, entitled "desert landscape." >> margaret buys it at $1,100, 161. >> it sells for a more-than-expected $1,100. is that an omen for "ruth," who don and phyllis considered donating to the salvation army, if they didn't just throw her out? >> everybody on the phones? >> i asked for an opening bid, and it opened at $50,000. >> okay. we have $50,000 to start. who'll do $60,000? >> the dealer who offered david mapes 300k a month before the auction is there and still

eager to bid. so is ray harvey. >> $70,000. we have $80,000 in the back. now $90,000. $90,000. >> they had quite a bit of action on it. >> do you remember your first bid? >> it was $300,000. >> i have $300,000. >> okay, we have $300,000. >> that would have been a good price? >> that would have been a steal. >> can i get $310,000? >> no one's getting a steal today. >> $320,000. $330,000. >> it keeps on climbing, past 400k, $450,000. >> we get up to $500,000. >> anyone drop out at that point? >> oh, yeah, a lot of people did. it was down to ray harvey, plus the floor bidder. >> did you ever consider stopping? >> you know, there is a point we all have to stop. but no. >> $640,000's bid. $650,000. we have $650,000 on the phone from italy. >> going once, going twice... >> is the camera ready for this? [ laughter ] [ crowd cheering ] >> sold to the arizona art lover

ray harvey. >> you want the total number? >> sure, why not? >> $650,000. >> i'm gonna fall off my chair. >> okay. [ both laugh ] that's about what i did. i had no concept, no concept, that it was worth that much. >> holy smokes. >> as of now, that's the third highest price that his paintings have ever sold for. >> victor higgins' enigmatic painting of ruth darn near ended up in a dumpster. >> well, i think the main thing i like about it is the color and the simplicity of the woman. >> ray will soon loan "ruth" to various museums, but today, she lives in his entryway, looking every bit the masterpiece. >> and the condition to this day after so many years in a basement, under a bed sheet. >> it's an amazing story. and i refer a lot to paintings that are collection-makers, you know? this would be considered a collection-maker. >> here's my wedding. >> as for don and phyllis, that unexpected windfall courtesy of

"ruth," gives them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a charitable donation bigger than they ever imagined. they fund the completion of a well for a needy community in africa. >> we gave 1/4 of it to a christian mission in kenya so that that well could be completed. >> that's spectacular. what did you buy for yourself? >> we bought a new car. that was all. >> a ferrari? >> no. a honda odyssey. >> you're so sweet, phyllis. >> we were just grateful. >> turns out, don isn't the only one in the camp family who inherited a painting that once belonged to old uncle curtis. his big brother also got one by another prominent taos artist named walter ufer. the difference is don's brother actually liked his, so much so it's been hanging in his home for half a century. i'm jamie colby. thanks for watching

"strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> dad had a talent. >> there's nobody out there who does what he did. he was just that good. >> but it's lost on his son. >> when you're 16 or 17 years old, the last thing you're worried about is your dad up in a building, building models. >> this strange inheritance ultimately brings them together. >> when his father was alive, he did not want larry to touch them, and i can only imagine what he's thinking now. >> how would you describe this inheritance? >> a little bit more of a journey than i was prepared for. >> so, is it time to take a new tack? >> i know you've said, larry, that you'd never seriously considered selling, but now that you hear this... ♪ [ door creaks ]

[ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] i'm jamie colby, and today i'm driving into the oldest settlement in louisiana. it's called natchitoches. it's rich in southern charm and civil war history. battles raged nearby, both along and on the red river. well, that history inspired one man's remarkable craftsmanship. but it left his son wondering what the heck to do with all the crafts. >> my name is larry atteridge. in 2008, my father passed away and left behind his life's work -- a massive fleet of amazingly detailed model ships he built from scratch. >> hi, larry. i'm jamie. >> well, hi, jamie. nice to meet you. >> great to meet you. thanks for inviting me deep into louisiana. it sure is pretty. >> well, i've got a lot to show you. come this way.

>> larry invites me in to see some of his father's civil war ships. this is one cool viewer submission. which one is that? >> this is the eastport, which was on the red river here in natchitoches parish. it was one of the largest ironclads of the civil war. it was 280 foot long, and it weighed 770 tons. >> with the civil war, i first think of great armies clashing at gettysburg, shiloh, and antietam, not naval battles. but that's the story these miniature vessels tell. when war between the states breaks out in 1861, union general winfield scott creates the anaconda plan. the idea -- blockade southern ports, take control of the mississippi, and, like a huge snake, squeeze the south into submission. the union builds a navy of more than 600 ships. >> they would commandeer boats

from people -- ferry boats, paddle-wheelers, anything that floated and they could put a gun on it. >> larry's father, william, made models of many of them. there's the c.s.s. gaines, a wooden side-wheel confederate gunboat built in mobile, alabama. there's the u.s.s. vicksburg and the c.s.s. alabama -- a massive propeller-driven ship built in secrecy in england for the confederacy. all are made precisely to scale. 1 inch here translates to 8 feet on the real vessel. where did this all begin? did dad buy a book on ship building? >> i don't remember anybody ever teaching him how to do this. it's just something you have to be born with. >> william atteridge jr. is born in 1929 in highland park, illinois, a suburb of chicago.

from an early age, he's fascinated by the ships he sees on lake michigan and dreams of one day setting sail. in 1951, during the korean war, william joins the navy and travels the pacific on the u.s.s. valley forge. the 22-year-old specializes in cosmetic maintenance, doing the detail work. >> the "45" that you see on the u.s.s. valley forge, he was one of the guys that painted the numbers on the aircraft carrier he was on. >> william is honorably discharged in 1955, returns home, gets married, and starts a family. larry's the youngest of three kids. the family settles in central louisiana, where william's artistic skills lead him to a job. >> he started out as a draftsman for the mobile-home industry. he just had an incredible talent for artistry. >> did you inherit the artistry

gene? >> no. >> when he's not buried behind a stack of blueprints, william loves to travel the country. >> he took us to national parks all over the united states. but it seemed like we always ended up at a naval air base or some military museum. >> then, in the mid-1970s, a trip to vicksburg, mississippi, sparks william's creative passion. more than 100 years earlier, the u.s.s. cairo was the first vessel ever to be sunk using a mine remotely detonated by hand. william's there to watch it go on display after being raised from the yazoo river. >> he started getting involved with the museum people over there, and next thing i knew, he was building ships. >> the 46-year-old father of three starts with his own miniature version of the massive

cairo -- piece by piece, out of pine and cypress. the smokestacks... the deck boards... cannons... even miniature ropes. it takes two months. >> you know, he would make the little doors and the little lifeboats. and then he would paint them and he would drive little nails into the deck. >> it's amazing. >> he just went haywire with it, really. >> over the next decade, william builds a civil war flotilla. there's the c.s.s. virginia, the first steam-powered ironclad warship, built by the confederate navy. the u.s.s. neosho, a union vessel with a steam-powered front-gun turret that can spin 360 degrees. that's some firepower. and the c.s.s. calhoun, a civilian steamer converted into a 500-ton side-wheel gunboat.

all with the precision you'd expect from a career draftsman. >> before he built a ship, he'd study it. he had blueprints from the smithsonian institution, and if they didn't exist, he would draw his own set of blueprints. >> down to the finest detail. >> he was a fanatic about it. >> was your mom applauding his efforts? >> not really. i recall her not being all that thrilled with dad spending a lot of time in the shop. >> but he wouldn't stop. >> oh, no. it became an obsession. >> by the time william retires in the early 1980s, he's churned out more than 500 ships. that's when the hobbyist decides to share his fleet with the world. he built an annex on his property, next to the family home in arcadia, louisiana -- his very own civil war naval museum. let's be honest -- most people would build, maybe, an addition to their house. your dad told your mom, "i'm

gonna build a museum for the ships." >> you know, for lack of better terms, i think he didn't really listen to much about what my mother had to say. >> william doesn't even let his son touch his delicate crafts. not that larry's interested. >> as a young man, i didn't pay as much attention to what he was doing. when you're 16 or 17 years old, the last thing you're worried about is your dad up in a building, building models. >> but outside the family, word is spreading about a reclusive shipwright in the woods of louisiana. they call from around the country and around the world. civil war buffs and private collectors not only want to see his work, they want to buy it. was this profit-making for him? that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. the c.s.s. virginia was a confederate ironclad warship also known by what name?

the answer after the break. ♪ dear humans, i stand here today not for myself, but, for every tail wager, sloppy kisser and curtain ninja. i stand here for each one of the nearly 4,100 dogs and cats killed in shelters each day, asking you to join our cause and help us make sure every best friend has a chance to meet one of their own. with best friends animal society leading the charge and your help, we can save them all. ♪

when you think of miami you think of,you know,rich,glamour but 5 miles away from the beach there's people who have never seen a beach. i was confused why somebody was in this situation especially in america. ♪music:oooh,oooh,oooh so when i started joshua's heart foundation it was a key thing to be able to engage youth in the foundation.

to help them participate. ♪music:oooh,oooh,oooh i think passing on the torch and lighting a new flame in another person to do good is probably the point of the bigger missions i have. ♪music:aha,aha,aha so we are each making a bigger difference. ♪music:oooh,oooh,oooh that's it! just giving back and producing love for everybody. >> so, by what name was the c.s.s. virginia also known? the answer is "b" -- the merrimack. it was a union ship salvaged by the south and rechristened as the virginia. in 1862, it faced off against the monitor in the first duel

between ironclad ships. >> by the 1990s, william atteridge has built an armada of nearly 1,000 model ships. visitors from around the world travel to his makeshift museum in the louisiana woods to see his amazing craft. did he charge people to come in? >> his museum was donations only. they would drop a couple dollars in a bucket and he'd let them go through there and he would talk them to death. and, finally, it was almost like, "okay, we got to go." [ chuckles ] >> one of his early patrons -- louisiana state university historian gary joiner. do you remember the first time walking in? >> absolutely. the first thing i saw was this giant model of the c.s.s. arkansas. and i said, "you know what you're doing." >> was he a teacher? >> he was to me. he was a historical sponge. >> gary commissions william to build ships to use as visual

aids in his classes -- 17 in all. what'd you pay? >> i think i paid $175 at the time. >> was it a steal? >> oh, yes. without a doubt. he was just that good. later, even museums commissioned ships from william. was this profit-making for him? >> he didn't make enough. my dad was a very kind soul, and he did a lot of things out of the goodness of his heart. >> what would it cost for a ship? >> back in those days, he might get $300 or $400. and he would spend two months building it. >> year after year, he churns out models. then, in 2005, william is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given six months to live. larry has long since moved out. he now owns a successful ambulance company two hours away. but he starts making the trip back and forth every week.

it's the most treasured time he ever spends with his father. >> during that period of time is when he taught me the most about these ships and about him. the realization came forward that we didn't really know each other. >> do you wish you had spent more time with him? >> absolutely. we loved each other, but we just didn't have that closeness. >> william atteridge outlives his prognosis by three years. he dies in 2008 at age 78. were you with him when he passed? >> yes. it was just me and him. i just told him i loved him and, you know, kissed him on the forehead, which is probably the first time i ever remember kissing my father. >> and with that, larry comes into his strange inheritance -- more than 100 ships, the blueprints he built them from, as well as the records of another 1,000-plus models he's sold through the years -- an archive of the hobby his

father elevated to an art form. have you had this collection appraised since you inherited it? >> i did when he first passed away. and i think it was around $130,000. >> would you sell? >> not for $130,000. the emotional attachment, to me, is worth a great deal more than that. >> but things can change. and, as you will see, they do for larry -- more than once. how would you describe this inheritance? >> it was a little bit more of a journey than i was prepared for. >> that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you. extra credit if you can name the war during which it was deployed. mom, dad, can we talk?

sure. what's up, son? i can't be your it guy anymore. what? you guys have xfinity. you can do this. what's a good wifi password, mom? you still have to visit us. i will. no. make that the password: "you_stillóhave_toóvisit_us." that's a good one. seems a bit long, but okay... set a memorable wifi password with xfinity my account. one more way comcast is working to fit into your life, not the other way around.

>> the answer is "a" -- the turtle. its inventor tried and failed to attach a time bomb to the hull of a british ship in new york harbor during the revolutionary war. >> it's 2008, and larry atteridge has just been left his strange inheritance -- more than 100 scale-model civil war ships built by his father, stacks of blueprints, and a request. do you remember your last conversation? >> what he asked me to do was to take the collection, to show them in his honor, and keep them together. >> so you're guarding the fleet? >> yes. [ chuckles ] >> with his father's ship

collection more than two hours away from his home, larry decides to move them to a closer port. a bed-and-breakfast in nearby natchitoches agrees to put them on display. these are so delicate. how do you even go about moving that many ships? >> i rented a 26-foot u-haul truck. we got furniture tarps and put them on the floor. >> larry's wife, pam, lends a hand -- with some hesitation. >> when his father was alive, he did not want larry to touch them, and i can only imagine what he's thinking now. >> the ships go on exhibit in natchitoches, with larry serving as the curator. but just a year later, with his ambulance business growing, larry decides he no longer has time to manage them. >> all of a sudden, i realize that i have to move these again. >> he reaches out to the state of louisiana, and they're on board. for a second time, larry

carefully packs up his sprawling and delicate fleet. this time, he ships it to a state museum in tioga, louisiana. five years pass. then, larry receives an alarming phone call. the museum's unstable -- literally. how unstable? >> it was about to cave in. then it became kind of a panic situation for us. >> for a third time, larry scrambles to relocate his strange inheritance. he decides just to bring it home, where the boats will be absolutely safe -- he thinks. then, early one morning... >> my stepdaughter came into the room and said, "hey, the house is on fire." >> the whole house, within five minutes, was in flames. >> in the 40 minutes it takes the fire department to reach their rural location, the atteridge house burns to the ground. >> we lost everything.

>> so, you escaped with your family, but the ships? >> they were still in the museum. >> thankfully, there'd been a delay in delivering custom-built cabinets to the house, and the models stayed put. wow. someone was protecting them. >> it was just by the grace of god, i think. >> unfortunately, most of his father's sale records for ships that he had sold were in the house and are lost in the fire. have you ever had a moment where you've said, "i do need to sell them"? >> yes. it's crossed my mind. >> we know one potential buyer -- our michael wall, founder of the american marine model gallery in gloucester, massachusetts. when larry called us, we called michael. >> i've never seen a collection like this, especially of civil war models. >> so, what's involved in appraising a collection like this? >> well, for example, i chose this model of arkansas because it's probably one of the biggest

ones in the collection. i love it because of the artistry that is done with the finish. i feel something like this would probably be worth between $5,500 and $6,500. >> wow. [ cash register dings ] >> the appraiser says william atteridge's model of the u.s.s. cairo would also go for about $6k. and larry has about 100 more. michael, what do you sense could happen if larry were willing to part with the collection? >> basically, i broke down the collection in three parts -- the high-end, the mid-range models, and then the low-range. the total was $279,000. >> okay. [ chuckles ] >> quite a collection. >> so, i know you've said, larry, that you'd never seriously considered selling, but now that you hear this... that's next.

what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com.

>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> larry atteridge is weighing his options after receiving an appraisal of $279,000 for more than 100 civil war model ships that his late father painstakingly built over a lifetime. so, larry, how does that compare to the appraisal you got years ago? >> well, it's a big surprise. it's much higher than it was. >> well, your dad did great work, and i think it's just a testament to what he put into this. >> in fact, when you consider that larry's father sold at least 10 times as many models as he kept, there may well be $2- to $3 million of william atteridge originals floating around the world.

pretty impressive for just an old guy with a hobby. so, larry, i know you've never seriously considered selling, but now that you've heard this, do you change your mind? >> [ inhales deeply ] well, got a lot to think about. um... i believe i'll hold on to them, keep them in the family and... >> great. >> ...in the bloodline. >> it's a lot of money. you couldn't use the money? >> obviously, we could use it, but we're not in that situation, so... >> yeah. >> ...we'll just hold on to them and keep them in dad's honor. >> and, finally, in a permanent home. ♪ >> well, here they are. >> very, very impressive. ♪ yep. those display cases finally arrived. so, inside their new house, larry and pam have created a mini-maritime museum --

a contemporary version of the one william had out in the woods all those years ago. minus, of course, the workshop, the donation bucket, and the model-ship builder -- ready, as his son recalls, to talk his visitors to death. do you see your father in these? >> absolutely. you know, i wake up every day, and there they are. and i think it's my long-lasting relationship with my father. you know, if it wasn't for that, i don't know that i'd have anything. >> in that house fire, larry lost records from about 1,000 of his dad's models. well, he's hoping you can help him locate those missing ships. if you look closely at bill atteridge's work, you can sometimes find a sticker with his name, like this one here. and if you see one, e-mail me a picture at jamie@strangeinheritance.com. thanks so much for watching.

and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> you did it. you did it. >> it's not over yet. we are going to fight all the way to the end. cheryl: not so fast. the pennsylvania race is still close to call this morning. the latest vote count for the special elections and look ahead to the midterm elections for november. lauren: stocks fell yesterday led by technology stocks after president trump killed broadcom plans to kill qualcomm. trading futures pointing to a much higher