Is there an antique in your attic? Is that piece of junk really a collectible jewel? Perhaps that broken piece of orange crockery is actually a £400 Clarice Cliff?

If museum staff can't tell the difference between a bicycle rest and a priceless Egyptian statue, as reports from Southampton suggest, it appears there could be some hope for the rest of us.

It is not the first time that something thought to be a piece of junk turned out to be priceless.

Last year at Phillips auction house, a 109-year-old no-name bicycle fetched £103,500 - despite the fact that the wheels folded every time the bike made a turn.

In December, a Beethoven manuscript which no-one had known existed, sold for £166,500 at Sotheby's.

It had been in a bunch of old letters propping up a bed in a stately home in Pencarrow, Cornwall. The proceeds went on mending the roof.

The Clevedon Salerooms, near Bristol, once sold for £6,500 a 17th Century pewter candle-stick which had belonged to a farmer's wife. She had kept it on a windowsill to throw in case of burglars.

According to antiques experts, it is worth keeping an eye out for anything which might be valuable - from pottery, to old comics, to Star Wars figures still in their boxes.

John Ainsley, editor of Antiques Info magazine, says lots of surprising things are fetching "absurd" prices.

"I know people who have moved out of antiques dealing to concentrate solely on Beanie Babies.

"And a Shelley cup and saucer from the 1930s can often fetch hundreds of pounds more than a piece of [mid-18th Century] first Worcester."

Condition is often irrelevant, he says. An early 18th Century walnut chest, for example, could fetch up to £30,000 - "even if it looked like something you'd put on a tip".

But from recent auction house statistics, it seems you'll be most in the money if you happen to stumble upon a spare Rothko, Monet or Lichtenstein.

Contemporary, impressionist and modern paintings have been reaching awesome prices because they are the style favoured by the new generation of internet millionaires.

According to experts, these people have more money than antiques nous and may pay millions over the odds.

So what do you do if you think you've found the next Tutan Khamun in your garage?

Antiques Roadshow experts say a good first step is a trip to the library, where you can check the style and materials of your find in reference books.

Once you've got an idea of what the item might be, you could take it to a museum. Most will identify an item free of charge, although they will not give valuations.

For that, you could either run the details through the hundreds of valuation sites on the internet, or take it to a professional valuer or dealer.

If you want to sell, you can then go through an auction, through a dealer or do it yourself.

And if your piece of junk really does turn out to be worthless after all, don't despair.

You could always go on the Antiques Roadshow and entertain the nation with a forced grin when you are told your purported family heirloom can actually be brought in Woolworths.