Antiques Roadshow says van Dyck find is worth thousands A valuable find: Antique Roadshow's Fiona Bruce and Father Jamie MacLeod with the portrait. A painting that hung on the wall of a priest's home for more than a decade after he bought it for £400 ($745) at an antiques shop has been identified as a van Dyck portrait worth a thousand times as much. The work, previously dismissed as a copy, was valued at £400,000 ($745,000) after its owner had it evaluated on Antiques Roadshow and is the most valuable painting to be identified in the 35-year history of the BBC television program. Canon Jamie MacLeod, who took the painting along to a roadshow session in Newstead Abbey, near Nottingham, plans to sell it to buy new church bells. He bought the portrait from a Cheshire antiques shop - which has since closed - 12 years ago. The work was identified after the program's host, Fiona Bruce, who was making a show about the artist with expert Philip Mould, saw the painting and wondered whether it was genuine. Mr Mould agreed to take a look at it and after weeks of cleaning and the removal of a top coat of 18th-century paint, the painting was verified by Christopher Brown, one of the world's leading authorities on van Dyck. Canon MacLeod said: "It's been an emotional experience and it's such great news." Ms Bruce said: "It's everyone's dream to spot a hidden masterpiece. I'm thrilled that my hunch paid off. The Flemish artist became the leading court painter in England under Charles I and his works hang in Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and in other museums and galleries around the world. The work revealed on the TV program is a portrait of a magistrate of Brussels. It is believed to have been painted as part of the artist's preparation for a 1634 work showing seven magistrates, which was destroyed in a French attack on Brussels in 1695. "Discoveries of this type are exceptionally rare," Mr Mould said.