Fake or Fortune? (сериал) Сезон 7 (2018)

Twentieth-century sculptures are hot property in the art market, with Giacometti's Pointing Man figure selling for $141m at auction in New York in 2015, making it the most expensive sculpture ever sold. Could a stark, white square of plaster that has been passed down through an English family with art world connections be one of Giacometti's earliest and most daring works? The quest to discover the history of the sculpture, known as The Gazing Head, leads the team to the bohemian world of 1930s Paris, where artists and intellectuals rubbed shoulders in cafes and studios. Can the team find any proof that the owner's grandmother acquired the sculpture from Giacometti during the time she spent studying and modelling in the city? If it's genuine, the sculpture could be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, but there's a problem - it was once knocked over by a cat and broken into several pieces. The team hope that a high-tech CT scan might reveal more about the damage it has sustained during its life and even yield clues about its origins. The trouble is, proving the authenticity of sculptures is notoriously difficult as works are often produced in multiple editions - and can be easy to replicate. As the investigation unfolds, the team travels to Germany to find out how police broke up a forgery ring that churned out thousands of fake Giacometti pieces. The final decision lies with the Giacometti Committee in Paris - and this could be one of the most complex cases they've ever considered.

Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould investigate two rare portraits of black British subjects from the 18th and 19th centuries. Painted with extraordinary skill and sophistication, both pictures are highly unusual in their positive depiction of black sitters at a time when Britain was still heavily engaged in slavery. But this is also an intriguing double whodunnit. Who are the artists who broke with the conventions of the time to paint these exceptional works? The first case is a double portrait featuring Dido Belle, a former slave who became a member of the aristocratic Mansfield family. The painting is on display at Scone Palace in Scotland and was commissioned by the first Lord Mansfield, Dido Belle's guardian, sometime in the late 1770s or early 1780s at the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In recent years, Belle's incredible story has inspired books and a feature film about her life. Now the current Lady Mansfield is determined to discover the name of the artist who painted her. The second painting is even more unusual - two beautifully dressed black girls holding a book in what appears to be a tropical landscape. Early clues suggest this could be a political painting somehow connected to the campaign to abolish slavery in Britain's colonies. Could the sitters themselves be slaves, but if so why are they wearing such fine clothes? The quest to solve both mysteries throws up some prime suspects from a golden era of British portraiture. But is new forensic and documentary evidence enough to convince a sceptical art world?

The team investigate whether a small watercolour sketch could be by the British 20th-century sculptor Henry Moore. It is the only piece thought to be that of a British artist in a Nazi hoard of around 1,500 works discovered in Germany in 2012. Known as the Gurlitt hoard, it is now housed in the Museum of Fine Art in Bern, Switzerland. Every piece in the hoard has to be researched, as if it was art stolen or looted from Jewish families, it should be returned. Fiona and Philip need to establish two things - firstly whether this a genuine work by Henry Moore or a whether it is a fake, And secondly, if it is genuine, how did a sketch by a British artist end up in a Nazi art hoard? The answer to this will decide its fate. The film goes on a journey from prewar Britain, where the little-known Henry Moore was beginning to make waves as a daring and progressive sculptor, to Germany in the 1930s. In England Philip meets Henry Moore's only child Mary, hoping that she will offer some insights into the way her father worked, and he asks if she can see her father's hand in the sketch. He compares the sketch to other genuine works by Moore from the time and subjects it to forensic tests. Will this reveal the smoking gun that would firmly put the name Henry Moore to this small drawing? In Germany, Fiona is on the provenance trail. She discovers that in the early 1930s, Hildebrand Gurlitt, the man who amassed this valuable hoard, was a forward-looking museum curator who encouraged the avant garde artists like Henry Moore. But this wasn't to last. In 1933 Hitler consolidated his power in Germany and set out to purge the country of any modern progressive art - or what the Nazi called degenerate art. Hildebrand Gurlitt lost his job but in an extraordinary transformation used his knowledge of the art Hitler hated to become one of four dealers allowed to sell degenerate art on the international market to make money for the Nazi regime. Could the sketch have been one that Hitler wanted to supress? And if so, how and when did Hildebrand Gurlitt get his hands on it? Fiona follows the trail to Berlin and to the Schonhausen Palace, where a lot of the so-called degenerate art was stored and viewed by the chosen few dealers. Could this have been where Hildebrand Gurlitt had the opportunity to buy the Moore sketch? Will the art investigators find enough evidence to convince the Henry Moore Review Panel that this is a genuine early work by Henry Moore? Will the outcome of the provenance search show that it was legitimately bought by Hildebrand Gurlitt and so can rightfully stay in the museum in Bern?

Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould head to France to take on a testing challenge - can they reverse an art world decision which one owner refuses to accept? Two sketchbooks found in a garden shed in St Emilion were given to a teenage boy, Alain, by his grandmother back in 1965. Although she never revealed where they came from, they were thought to be the work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the aristocratic artist born in 1864 known for his atmospheric depictions of Parisian nightlife. Alain waited 50 years before he decided to present the sketches to the French committee responsible for authenticating the work of Toulouse-Lautrec. Unfortunately, the committee did not accept them as the work of Toulouse-Lautrec and stated they were the work of another artist - Rene Princeteau - meaning they are worth just a few thousand pounds instead of many hundreds of thousands. For Fiona and Philip, this is on one of their toughest investigations - if they are to prove the sketches are by Toulouse-Lautrec, they must not only discredit them as the work of Rene Princeteau but also persuade a respected committee to change their mind. The sketchbooks are brimming with drawings - beautiful and characterful images of women, horses, sailors, soldiers and dogs. If they are the work of Toulouse-Lautrec, they are not the kind of images for which is he best known. Some of the pages are dated 1880, which would mean they are the work of the teenage Toulouse-Lautrec, and little is known about this period of his work. In their quest, the team journey to the beautiful town of Albi in southern France, where Toulouse-Lautrec was born, and visit the grand family home, Chateau du Bosc, where the artist spent much of his youth. With so little evidence to go on, Fiona and Philip scour the rooms for clues that might link the life of Toulouse-Lautrec to drawings in Alain's sketchbooks. Technical analysis is also vital, but Fiona and Philip are still piecing together their scientific evidence when the Toulouse-Lautrec committee announces that it's meeting - soon. It's a deadline they can't miss, but can they put together a compelling case in time?

Can the team prove that a beautiful still life of a glass jug and pears is the work of celebrated British artist William Nicholson? The investigation began when viewer Lyn got in touch to ask for our help - a painting she owns recently suffered a fatal blow when it was rejected by the leading authority on William Nicholson and was left out of the artist's latest catalogue raisonnee - the official list of all his known works. Lyn bought the paining in 2006 for £165,000, believing it to be a genuine Nicholson, but now it's worth practically nothing. However, this damning ruling has divided art world opinion. Can Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould uncover enough new evidence to convince sceptics that this is a genuine Nicholson? William Nicholson was one of the leading British artists of his generation. Born in 1872, he began his career as a graphic artist before forging success as a painter. Over five decades he created nearly 900 oil paintings from informal portraits to haunting landscapes, but it's his exquisite still lifes which are most admired. In the years after his death, William Nicholson was overshadowed by his more famous son, the abstract artist Ben Nicholson, but today his work is highly prized, often reaching six-figure sums. This programme has a highly personal element - Lyn grew to love Nicholson through her aunt, Lillian Browse, who was a legend in the art world and one of the first female art dealers. It was just a few months after her aunt's death that Lyn bought the picture from her gallery. Lillian Browse was renowned for her knowledge of William Nicholson, having published the first catalogue raisonnee in 1956. For Lyn, this is as much about justice for her aunt - would she really have had a fake Nicholson in her gallery? - as a fight for the painting she loves and the money she's lost. Fiona and Philip build up a detailed forensic case, starting with a lucky find - Nicholson's very own paintbox, kept in William Nicholson's grandson's house. It's a gift for scientific analysis, but will paint samples from the painting match those from Nicholson's own paintbox? The back of the painting reveals more clues with handwriting that can be compared to letters written by Nicholson, and an x-ray shows there's more to this painting than first meets the eye. As the team delve back into the provenance of the painting, they come across an alarming find - could this painting have been involved in one of the great art crimes of the 20th century? Fiona meets reformed art forger John Myatt to find out if he ever faked a Nicholson. In a final bid to put the name Nicholson to this painting, Philip travels to Canada, where he compares the painting to a very similar Nicholson painting of a glass jug and pears. Could this painting hold the key to authenticating Lyn's? A compelling forensic case is pieced together, but is it enough? Will Lyn get justice for her painting?