Marvin Gaye’s passport discovered inside a 50 cent Motown record

Detroit man has soul artefact valued at $20,000 on US television programme Antiques Roadshow.

In what has to go down as one of the digs of the century, a guest on a recent episode of Antiques Roadshow explained how he found a copy of Marvin Gaye’s passport from 1964 inside the sleeve of a Motown record he bought for just 50 Cents. The man, himself an avid collector and employee at the Motown Museum in Detroit, said he had been called out to collect the belongs of an unnamed Motown musician who had passed away, a collection of LPs and 45s from which were being sold off in the estate sale.

Talking on the show, he describes the moment he found the passport: “When I got home, I was going through them and out of an album fell this passport. And so it literally fell into my hands.”

Found in an album bought for 50 Cents, the passport was valued by Antiques Roadshow appraiser Laura Woolley at $20,000. She explained:

“The thing I’m in love with is how young he is here. This is dated 1964, which is great, and it is after he added the “E” to the end of his name, because when he was signed as a solo artist with Motown, he decided to add that “E,” and there’s a lot of different theories: people say it’s because he wanted to separate himself from his father or because he actually liked Sam Cooke so much, who had an “E” at the end of his name, that he wanted to imitate his idol.” [via Eurweb]

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