Fake or Fortune

    Watch Video

November 17, 2011

The art world can prove a bear pit with a myriad of tricksters at work. Experts estimate that anything between 20-40% of works of art on the market are faked. And they can turn up in the most unexpected places. Hanging in one of our most prestigious and respected art institutes in London is a picture Philip has heard of which may hold the key to unlocking the story of the most audacious forger of all time. A man who dared to fake the work of old masters and made millions from his deception until he was caught in 1945;Han Van Meegeren. But a mystery remains to this day as Van Meegeren died before a complete record of his fakes was made. How did he pull off faking old master paintings, duping important art galleries in to making purchases of works apparently by Vermeer, even foxing Goering in to buying one of his works during the war? Philip & Fiona get to work on the London picture which, legend has it, hung in Van Meegeren's studio on the day he was arrested. Was it his last work and by testing it can we prove how he outfoxed some of the most eminent minds in the art world?

    Watch Video

November 3, 2011

In the art world Monet means money. Wealthy collectors will bid tens of millions of pounds to own a painting by this famous impressionist who, perhaps more than any other artist, has managed to captivate the world. But in order to make big bucks paintings thought to be by Monet must have been accepted into the official register; the "catalogue raisonne" - a five volume tome which lists every Monet in existence. The catalogue is published not by an academic institution, but by a family of billionare art collectors, art dealers and racehorse owners; the Wildenstein's. For the last 18 years art collector David has been imploring the Institute to accept his painting as a genuine Monet. Despite his research and support of the world's heavyweight Monet scholars, Guy Wildenstein refuses to accept the painting.Philip Mould and Fiona Bruce join forces with the worlds most prestigious art galleries and research institutes in an effort to prove the attribution of this painting. The challenge? - to gather enough evidence to convince the Wildenstein's to include it in the great book - the Monet catalogue raisonne. A difference that could would make a huge difference to the value of the picture too. Along the way we enlist the help of the worlds greatest art galleries...we follow a fascinating and far-reaching provinence trail which takes us from Monet's beloved banks of the River Seine in Normandy, to a grand mansion on the Nile - home of a wealthy Egyptian collector with an expensive taste in French art. And we enlist the help of the team of scientists who recently discovered a new Leonadro da Vinci work by identifying a fingerprint left by the master himself.