Fake or Fortune?

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Journalist Fiona Bruce and art expert Philip Mould investigate mysteries behind paintings.

Fiona Bruce teams up with expert Philip Mould to investigate mysteries behind intriguing works of art. Are they potentially priceless or crafty copies?

Series 9

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Fiona Bruce

Philip Mould

Guy Arthur

Judith Winnan

Fake or Fortune?: Series 9: Gerome

Documentaries

Episode 2

Gerome

BBC One - Fake or Fortune?, Series 9, Gerome

Can the team prove that a painting is a genuine work by the Orientalist artist Gerome?

In 1999 Jon Swihart believed he’d bought a genuine work by the 19th century Orientalist artist Jean-Leon Gerome but the leading authority disagreed. Can the team prove Jon right?

Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould investigate a small oil painting of a man praying in a mosque, a scene filled with meticulously painted and intriguing detail. Its owner, Jon Swihart, bought it at auction in 1999 and believed it to be the work of the nineteenth-century French artist Jean-Leon Gerome, who was a leading figure in the Orientalist genre of painting. 

When Jon bought the picture, it was listed as 'Circle of Gerome', having been downgraded by the leading authority on the artist at that time, Professor Gerald Ackerman. Previously, however, it had been fully attributed to Gerome, and Jon felt intuitively that it was a genuine work by the artist. Through their shared love of Gerome, Jon and Professor Ackerman had got to know each other and become friends, but Jon bought the picture without consulting him and without knowing that it was Professor Ackerman who had downgraded the picture from a genuine Gerome. It became a sore point between the two of them, and they chose never to discuss the matter again.
 
After Professor Ackerman passed away in 2016, Jon began to wonder again about the authenticity of the picture and got in touch with Fake or Fortune? to see if the team could help. On a video call from his home in Santa Monica, California, Jon reveals to Fiona and Philip that he paid over $6,000 for the painting - a high price for a work considered to be 'circle of'. But as Philip explains, if proven genuine the picture could be worth as much as £100,000.

As ever, the team use science and good old-fashioned detective work to get to the truth about this picture. The investigation leads Philip to Barnsley in South Yorkshire, where he sees a promising preparatory sketch for Jon’s picture, but he also comes across a damning letter from Professor Ackerman in the archives that raises the spectre of a faker at work. Meanwhile, Fiona follows the trail of clues in the painting itself and discovers that the historical and cultural inaccuracies common in Orientalist paintings raise more questions than answers. 

The evidence is gathered, but do they have enough to convince the new Gerome authority that Jon’s instincts were right all along?

Fake or Fortune?: Series 9

BBC One

Philip Mould and Fiona Bruce team up to investigate more art world mystery and intrigue.

Philip Mould and Fiona Bruce team up to investigate more thrilling cases of art world mystery and intrigue.

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