Fake or Fortune SE4 E01 "Lowry"

the art world where paintings change hands for fortunes for every known masterpiece there may be another still waiting to be discovered that's it that is all painting international art dealer Philip mold and I have teamed up to hunt for lost works by great artists we use old-fashioned detective work and state of the art science to get to the truth science can enable us to see beyond the human eye the problem is not every painting is quite what it seems I paid about a thousand pounds for it that is a lot if it's a fake it's a journey that can end in joy or bitter disappointment they are declaring that your painting be seized and then destroy it in our first new investigation we take on one of the biggest names in twentieth-century art Lawrence Stephen Lowry we're on the trail of three small oil paintings by Britain's best-loved modern artist bought by a self-made man with a passion for art there should be worth a small fortune but uncertainty about their origin means they could be worth nothing at all yeah they are worthless the trouble is Ellis Larry is one of the most frequently faked artists his simple style making him a soft target for notorious forgers you just got to kind of get this on as fast as you can especially if you want to do fake can we prove that these three paintings are genuine works or could there be a more sinister explanation so we're dealing with a rogue pigment what's up there rogue painting we're heading to the northwest of England to follow up a lead on a small collection of artworks thought to be by LS Lowry the region's most celebrated artist best known for his smoky industrial scenes of northern life we come to see a man who has just inherited three works that he believes are by LS Lowry the problem is he can't quite prove that they are and the other problem is is it Larry as you know who is one of the most faked artists around so it could be complicated we've arranged to meet property developer Stephen Ames in nestin in Cheshire hi very well very nice to meet you he's brought us to the home of a delayed father Gerald who died last year aged 87 leaving behind several artworks including a trio of possible Larry's well this is a lovely collection isn't it these are great I think this is probably my favorite this lady here with the two dogs only I mean it's a wonderful quirky image and done in a slightly abstract form against that white background you know typical in a sense Larry and then the one above I mean I'm so pleased we've got a crowd scene buying cuz he's so famous for leather and all these little figures a slightly separate one from the other yeah rather lonely slowly dislocated and wasn't at least a rather marvelous pair here yeah he loved quirky subjects I mean he had this perpetual I opened the opportunity one feels that this is this is based on on something if it is by Larry that the man encountered born in Lancashire in 1887 Larry became fascinated by the factory is an everyday life of Manchester and Salford where he lived and worked as a rent collector often sneered at by the art establishment he painted for decades in obscurity before finding fame in old age by the 1960s and 70s he was wildly popular a genuine people's artist and after he died even the subject of a chart-topping song many of Larry's admirers were new to art buying and keen to stay in touch with ed northern roots just like Stephens father Gerald and this is your dad here is in his heaven look at these pictures and it's quite a character it was it was my turn and that's your mom is it and your dad if he's not something that Mission Impossible that's right it is statue 70s period piece in there really it really is the son of a nurse and merchant seaman Gerald Ames was a self-made man who became a successful company director able to afford the finer things in life and have you got another picture that I think I think this is slightly earlier he bought this plane I'm sure in 1969 or 1970 so it's all the same theory what a dude your dad was great childhood you must have had I did growing up with all these boys toys we they know we did have a fantastic childhood so he was a bit of a connoisseur and so forth it was yes he was a connoisseur himself even he was he was a he was a quite a keen amateur painter himself he was a great fan of Larry and other northern artists you know they bought them really all within a year these three certain actually 18 months anyway do you know where your your father bought these pictures I mean were they from auction no they weren't from auction and that I do know I remember him going down with my mother and and going through them and looking at them in a gallery there's I do remember that he didn't he wouldn't have bought them at auction he wasn't that she bought them from a dealer yes sounds like a man of taste yes the problem for Steve is there are no records to show where and when his father bought the Larry paintings so there's no real evidence to show that they are authentic Larry's so what's happened now you've tried to prove these pictures of oh no well we had everything valued and because I couldn't find anything you couldn't find any documentation no I could everything else but not on these you've given us a horrific challenge because without the paperwork without the receipts without the proof that your dad actually bought these things the film I promise you have been through thousands of pieces of paper and my brother has if anything more than I have and my wife who's a lawyer on dad they're good at going and she recount funny because I hear we have a man who knew a bit about art bought three paintings in Larry's life talent hmm and now you're stuck with him yeah I mean look they are worthless without authentication yeah at the moment still can't if they are binary Philip what would they be like well Steve this is just gonna really frustrate you because if we were to start with with with with the old couple I mean I can see that making forty fifty thousand I can see the the quirky lady in black with the dogs making sixty thousand possibly even a little bit more I mean it's it's so beguiling and that's for the crowd scene well you know that could even touch 100,000 I mean you're looking at over two hundred thousand pounds worth of pictures here if and you haven't got it if you can get the paperwork yeah expensive paperwork yeah we're not the first to search for proof that the three paintings are genuine with several auction houses drawing a blank after months of inquiries the fact that they would they were to authenticate all they wouldn't be authenticated sort of them they sort of upset me a bit because it's sort of it's not it's about his memory really and he wasn't the type of person that would be duped in my view particularly in this period of his life it's a point of family pride for Steve to prove that the three pictures are genuine his father was passionate about the art of the Northwest of England buying works by Alan Lowndes and Pat Cooke a protege of Larry from reputable galleries a profitable spell in the early 70s allowed him to splash out on quality works and this is when Steve thinks his father must have brought the Lowery's but in the absence of a paper trail the only real evidence that these pictures might be genuine lies in how they look to find out how far they resemble authentic works by Ellis Larry Fiona and I had come to Salford Keys home of the Lhari Center where over 400 of his works are held this is argument his most famous picture 1930 coming from the mill Larry said that he would start a painting by blocking in the buildings and then the people afterwards looking at these buildings you get the sense that that's what he's done there don't you yeah very much so I mean I I see with Larry that the architecture which is really important acts a bit like the the stage props and and the characters the actors who impart the emotion are the figures at the bottom and they you know by sitting these figures against a light background is conveying a sense of emotion a sense of thought and let's face it it's probably the most distinctive artist at work in Britain in the 20th century above all Larry's work is deceptively simple almost primitive a classically trained painter who presented being build an amateur Larry's work break with convention he called them dreamscapes and in the post-war years often filled them with quirky even grotesque characters and as these works wish have the closest resemblance to steve's paintings the old woman in the funeral party painted by Larry in 1957 even candidly close to the woman in Steve's picture this painting figures in a street is strongly reminiscent in the skyline of the composition of Steve's crowd scene and Larry's trademark black dogs are everywhere sometimes looking almost cat-like just as they do with Steve's picture lady with dogs encouraged by the similarities between Steve's pictures and Larry's genuine work we're meeting up with dr. Ben door Grosvenor fake off fortunes specialist art researcher he's been hunting for information about the history of the paintings can I start with the picture I think it's the most promising of our three I think it's lady with dogs and I think as we always like to do I like to start on the back because we have what looks like a rather promising stock number and I'm hoping that that's going to tie in with this label from the LaFave gallery down here now the fabric is a very interesting name because the Ferren Larry had a long and a close connection Lefevre was the first gallery to mount a solo exhibition of Larry's work in 1939 and in fact I'm told another painting sold and if ever bought some of them themselves was not to disappoint Allari too much but then by the time it came to 1960 it was a sort of event for the glitterati and Larry's exhibitions would sell out on the first day and importantly the Lefevre gallery is still around today what we need to know if they've got any archives and if so we need to get access to them one slight problem perhaps with lady with dogs is the signature which is written on environ did Larry do signatures in Paris actually you're not the first to point that out to be worried about it the auction house who first checked out these pictures said well you know why shouldn't it be painted or scratched it as he often did that was a question mark also when it comes to our other two pictures though is precious little to go on so we've got an old couple dated 1957 and then an undated crowd seen looking at the back of these it's potentially a bit less promising I mean there's two white stickers that that leap out of this are from this auction house which which checked out the paintings nothing more yeah but if you look at the old couple on the left the inscription says Darby and Jones think that's probably meant to read Darby and Joan tear the old man got exactly quite a common subject for artists at that point not fantastically rich pickings is it we have got something else to go on because Steve mentioned a name to me Andres Kalman who you will know was a well-known London art dealer who dealt in Lowrey amongst others so that's a possible connection yes well in fact his gallery crane kalman still exists and I'll go along and see what they have in their archives yeah we really need to crack the provenance on this but also the science I mean no one has really got to grips with with what Larry looks like as an artist up close it's about time we put him under the microscope I'm on my way to meet one of faker fortunes experts in the scientific analysis of paintings Libby Sheldon she's been studying Lara's artistic techniques and is keen to examine Steve's paintings up close to see if they bear any home hugs of the master or any ominous signs that they were created more recently first she needs to free them from their overpowering 1970s frames I know this was a common way of putting pictures in their frames we don't do it so much so now it's got something each anyway actually looks a lot fresher than it did didn't it I mean it probably because the glass was slightly discolored well this is a very very interesting to see it without the grass because it looks to me as if there isn't a varnish on this and never husband and Laurie was very adamant that his painting shouldn't be varnished now on to Darby and Joan our old couple unlike the other two pictures this one is painted on a wood panel but does this make it more or less likely to be of genuine Larry to me that the wood is is a great thing because Larry loved wood so slightly more difficult thing to get a piece of wood that's in good condition in order to create a fake that's interesting so so wood gives you a little bit more comfort yes no oh yes God isn't that interesting you can now see the texture in a way that you couldn't before yes I mean it's applied really thickly isn't it yes and and also tumbles over the edges look I mean if this is my faker it's by someone who who knows their way around a pot of paint very competent yes Libby's taking tiny samples from the surface of Steve's paintings to find out precisely what pigments are present Lowry claimed that he only ever used five particular pigments I'm a simple man and I use simple materials he said my colors are and always have been flake white also known as red white ivory black scarlet Vermillion Prussian blue and yellow ochre just five colors and always for the Windsor and Newton company these should be the only ones Debbie's tests reveal in Steve's paintings anything out of the ordinary could spell trouble while we wait for the results of Libby's scientific analysis I'm doing some research into the market for Larry's works you just have to have a quick look on internet to see quite how many Larry's there are for sale here and it's just amazing there's some going for three power sixty-five Roger that's have four bids but there's one here for 340 pounds wonderful northern art original oil painting LS Larry now it says original painting and it says Ellis Larry it doesn't say original painting by Ellis Larry but you that's what you'd think and it's signed by Ellis Larry no provenance for this one I'm afraid unless Preiser gorgeous colors lots of figures to be seen in this painting oh listen to this I'm selling this beautiful painting from my LS Lowry collection no less it's very interesting it's staying on the right side of the law but only just but this is this is an industry you're seeing here the art market might be awash with modern Lowery copies but I found troubling evidence that his work was being forged as early as the 1970s precisely when Steve's dad is thought to have bought his paintings I have managed to find somebody who was faking Gary as early as 1969 now he was a man called John Green and he lived at the appropriately enough on the Costa del Sol and he would say Larry's are a piece of cake to coffee and to begin with he would sell them for a few hundred quid a few thousand pounds but after Larry died suddenly John Green realized he could make even more money from Larry's and he would start to charge forty thousand pounds a time for his paintings this was serious money who knows how many fake Larry's by John Green are out in the market it's impossible to say I'm worried about how tainted the market for Larry's works might be so I've arranged to meet James Rowland former head of modern art at Sotheby's to find out why Larry became such a soft target for forges James how often would Larry's be brought to you and has a fake ever come across your desk and you thought it was genuine there are pictures that come up that take a lot of thinking about is that a yes what just shows how difficult it is they even you have been taken in it's very tricky to be able to pin something down categorically what should we be looking out from you've seen lots of Larry fakes in your time what sets alarm bells ringing for you to fake a very successfully you need to be able to replicate the technique replicate the poet but which is also is limited because we only use five candidates by 11 so that in itself means you need to replicate the spirit of the pictures presumably with Larry a fake is going to go after the more popular so Larry's subject so the mills the crowd sings kind of thing yeah that's very much the the path that you're going to see most people following if they're going to fake a Larry because that's what he's known for it's the street scenes the chimneys fingers with domes that sort of thing and of course towards the end of his life there's smaller panels with the one or two figure groups I suppose probably because they're perceived to be a simple the apparent simplicity of Larry's work has been exploited by forges to such an extent that there's currently no official body prepared to authenticate newly discovered works it occurs to me having talked to James that we are probably going to have to work even harder with Larry than we have with any other artists we've dealt with in the past because he is so widely fate we again have to put together absolutely watertight argument for these Larry's and when it comes to the panel of people who ultimately will verify it even if they think it probably is a Larry unless they're a hundred percent sure they're going to err on the side of caution and say no if we're going to convince a specially assembled panel of experts to accept Steve's pictures as genuine we need provenance hard evidence that shows a chain of ownership beginning with Larry himself and ending with Steve's dad Gerald Eames we think he bought lady with dogs the most promising picture from the Lefevre gallery and our research into the label on the back of the picture has suddenly borne fruit I've just had a fascinating email from my gallery staff they come across a picture in Cheshire st. County where Steve lives a painting by Larry fully authenticated and the fascinating thing is on the back of it is a number beginning with X very similar to the style of number we have on the lady with the two dogs I've come to write Marshall auctioneers in Knutsford with the sale already in progress I've persuaded them to let me have a sneak preview of the genuine Lowry and there's something remarkable about it this is the most extraordinary coincidence this picture a fully authenticated Larry got all the paperwork is about to be sold in fact downstairs in about an hour's time we managed to sneak it up here to have a look but just look at it it's exactly the same frame as that around Steve's carved duel did with a canvas slip but the best bit because when you turn it over because not only if you were to label alifair label exactly the same as that one on Steve's looks like the same typewriter move your eye up and this is the knockout blow you've got the number X 9 102 another X number but just look at the number 9 102 compare it to Steve's 9 101 so we're left with the extraordinary conclusion that these two pictures must have hung together in the same exhibition probably at the fair they belong together now surely the most sophisticated faker couldn't think of that one lost 1125 the rather special Alice Larry oil painting people in a street signed completely authenticated full bill of sale and provenance all the way back to its original purchase from the Lefevre gallery 72 with all that all-important little X number on the back as well I'll strike you straight off in at 50,000 pounds at 50,000 I bid who's in next 51 52 53 at 54 55 not surprisingly bidding his brisk 60,000 at 60,000 pounds now any further bids going once twice three times at 60,000 pounds all done now thank you at 60,000 pounds so with action tax and commission that think you made seventy five thousand pounds but make no mistake it wasn't just the picture I got some of money it was the all-important bill of sale that piece of paper that steel doesn't have for his little picture Phillips discovery in Cheshire should help our quest to prove that lady with dogs is authentic but there's precious little information about the provenance of Steve's other two pictures crowding and Darby and Joan the only lead we have is that Steve's father Gerald Ames knew the founder of the crane kalman gallery who specialized in the sale of Larry's art in the 70s and Ben door is keen to find out whether they might have sold him the pictures today the gallery is headed by Robin Light a leading expert on Larry and he's offered to show bender what a genuine works sold through crane Kalman should look like as a rule I mean of course it doesn't happen with everything cause labels fall off when they get changed by frame makers but we tend to always look for this very simple crane camera label title artists date buyer and here we have Larry two people sold in December 1973 we reference the ledger we go to 73 and we here we have it the 13th of December 1973 two people sold for 2,500 pounds so that's that's the system working perfectly absolute number a bit stuck here yeah with no labels on two of our paintings is there any evidence of a sale to Gerald Eames in the gallery's ledges I've checked out the pages from 1969 through 275 and cannot find any reference at all for a G Eames Robert if I fail completely in my mission to find any provenance for these two paintings at all would you ever feel confident enough about just making attribution on the basis of what you see there I think itself we would be very dismissive of selling something without a track record especially with layering when it was known in the 70s I think pictures were coming from Spain and probably all sorts of other places I think I would say hand on heart we wouldn't straightaway say yes we'll buy these for how to have to say yes we'll buy these if we can corroborate the provenance okay all right with so little information about the origins of crowd scene and Darby and Joan how can we be sure they're not clever forgeries my research into Lowrie fakes has turned up a disturbing case from 2007 for years George and Dalek greenhouse and a son Sean have cheated galleries and art dealers by passing off forgeries as treasured artifacts Sean greenhouse was sentenced to four years in prison for faking everything from antiquities to modern art including the work of ALS Larry today he's a reformed character and he's agreed to help our investigation he's offered to show us how he went about creating a fake Larry and any warning signs we should look out for in our pictures she only successfully faked Larry's he wonders scored a new yes 15 I think it was the first successful life I managed to do when you say successful you managed to send it to me yeah through a dealer who used to dealing in libraries work when he was alive you Shawn's meticulous approach to painting a fake Larry showed just how difficult it can be to tell the difference between a forgery and the genuine article just got to kind of get this almost faster you can't go just watch it on an issue every protections wait he's quite all that paints and Weiser Newton yeah Windsor Newton please and of course these five colors yes just the five and especially if you want to do a fake you'd stick to the actual colors so you didn't have any any kind of controversy importantly when you saw artex person eminent figures in the art world authenticate your paintings what did that make you think about their level of connoisseurship in a lot of cases I think it's four phone wanting and provenances as we all know in the art world more important realer than the actual work of an art or too many people it is because of people like usual exactly yeah if it wasn't for you cheering at your Diaries people wouldn't be much placing me and awesomeness that yeah that's a point yeah so you know you you are responsible for that maybe yeah yeah you do have a point it's painstaking work trying to precisely replicate a very spontaneous artist what I always found out today is to tick the right boxes in the experts minds when they come to look at the painting or any other work or after that matter what are they actually looking for that says it's genuine or it isn't I think if you find out what those triggers are on technologies they've got further than most people might imagine even if the relatively poor works there's one question I've been dreading to ask Sean admits he faked his first Lowrie in the mid 70s could he be responsible for any of our pictures and just checking you didn't do any of these no I've never done any lighting stuff I'm relieved and as sure knows Larry's work intimately I'm keen to know whether our pictures look real or fake to his eye what do you think yeah I'd have no trouble in saying that us oh that's bile oh okay this Chris is undated crowding I'm a bit concerned with this area but it's like so it's hard to tell with not the real thing here this kind of looks like it's been painted over with thinners which lower in ever used was very very thinly painted well that lady with dogs mm-hmm looks okay to me tomorrow hair especially yeah well it's not proof but it's very interesting to me of course Sean's endorsement of lady with dogs is heartening so Bender is chasing down the final piece of evidence we need for it to be accepted as a genuine work by Ellis Lowry he's come to the Tate Gallery underground vaults to examine the sales legends of the LaFave gallery whose label appears on the back of Steve's picture these photographic Ledger's were compiled by the fare carrier to record all the Larry's that they ever sold so if we're going to back up the claim that one of Stephens pictures was sold through the LaFave gallery then we need to find it in these Ledger's the key piece of evidence is that stock number boldly written on the bank what we need to do is match up the stock number on the back of Stephens picture ex9 101 to one of the numbers in here now that X is quite an important number because the X numbers denoted paintings that were bought from Larry himself that is the picture that sold doctrine of 60,000 pounds x9 1:02 here we are like a notice that fantastic here it is Steve's painting we've just put a check that it's the same painting not some stodgy coffee and I think I think there can be absolutely no doubt at all we've got one of Steve's paintings here it feels know that we could have done enough to prove that lady with dogs is a genuine work so we're all getting together to take stock that's really encouraging to find lady with dogs and in a favor ledger in terms of getting the paper trail all the way back from painting to Larry himself it doesn't get much better than that I think it makes the picture almost a dead cert doesn't it you're so buoyant I hesitate to cast a shadow River proceedings but I've just heard from the Lefevre gallery and they have another ledger which records what paintings they sold when and to whom the only problem is they want to keep their client details confidential they might show to me what they have done is given me a little bit of information from it and they're saying that Larry's painting lady with dogs was sold in July 1972 which is a really good day for us well I mean that's pretty when exactly the year that Steve rut causes further buying it well I know but this is where the problem arises because Lefevre they won't tell us who did buy the painting but what they will tell us is it wasn't Gerald Ames it wasn't Steve's dad who bought it in 1972 so could be the whoever bought it from the fair then sold it to Gerald well we've clearly got to work out how Gerald got ahold of it and what Lefevre say is the person who did buy it this mystery buyer was not an art dealer or an agent so wouldn't have sold it on in that way was someone who was connected to the gallery and therefore if they had decided to sell the painting would almost certainly have sold it through Lefevre so Lefevre would have known about it but they don't they have no record of it and they won't tell us who the mystery buyer is I suppose the other option is that it's stolen I have come across a couple of stories in papers from the 1970s about works by Larry being stolen but there I checked it is something called the Art Loss Register which is the first place you would look for a record of a stolen painting and STIs pictures are not on that we're also gonna have to tell Steve about this development yeah it's very unfortunate because the art world hates a gap in a provenance for a 20th century picture like that I mean what we have to try and establish is Steve's father's credibility as a buyer of Lari what we need to do is get closer to the early history of this painting our investigation has taken an unexpected turn the provenance chain that we'd hoped to establish from Inari and Lefevre to Steve's father Gerald Ames has been broken it's the kind of anomaly that will make Larry experts very wary so it's vital we find evidence that Gerald had the paintings in the early 70s we're interrupting Steve's holiday to update him Steve we spoke to the LaFave gallery as you'd expect to try and find out just to get the paper trail of your father buying the painting from the FEV so what we've got now is is it is a break between the painting being at the Lefevre gallery and it ending up with your dad what I think we just need to prove is the fact that your father held these things so it's not just a receipt and and I realized that might might be impossible to get hold of but just some evidence that he had them in the 70s I mean that would be very helpful because it would allow us to to complete that paper trail it would be portions documents or friends who remember it being on the wall at the time any photographs of it's hanging up I mean we just need to start looking in different directions now Steve yeah to set that but we've got other avenues to pursue now it's vital that Steve turns up some evidence to show that his father owned lady with dogs the alarming lack of provenance on Steve's other pictures crowd scene and Darby and Joan makes it more important than ever to prove that there is nothing abnormal about the pigments the artist used I returned to see Libby Sheldon our expert in scientific analysis of paintings olivia is great to be back have you been getting on well we taking some samples as you know and some very interesting information has come up Libby has been comparing microscopic fragments of paint from Steve's pictures with samples of the five Winsor & Newton pigments Larry is known to have used slate white ivory black scarlet vermilion Prussian blue and yellow mocha these two paintings have the five pigments in them and they're very close together in terms of the types of whites or types of a million and so on we've got a little bit of Prussian blue there and with the white it's even more exciting because the winds are making LED white houses very very bright particles in it and it's really something quite distinctive amongst LED whites and here you see these extraordinary jewel-like fish almost fish-shaped floating around in the red white so it's not conclusive but at least there's no shocking revelations at this stage no and very encouraging I think it's reassuring to know that Libby has only found evidence of those exclusive five pigments Larry favored in crowd scene and lady with dogs but her tests have revealed something highly unusual about Darby and Joan and it could put its authenticity in doubt now this painting I found disturbingly different it's got a white with it that is not LED white it's throughout the painting so it makes her pick the paint seem very different so we're dealing with a rogue pigment well possibly a rogue painting with the fate of Darby and Joan hanging in the balance we need to find out as much as we can about that unusual white pigment that debbie has detected Rachel we come to the physics department of King's College London to meet Rachel grout she's going to examine the paint sample under a scanning electron microscope so it's up on the screen now we're about to acquire the spectrum to see what the elements are using x-ray analysis she'll be able to identify the individual chemical elements and thus revealing the type of pigment used so the carafe beneath will give us an indication of what it is yeah we're getting some very clear Peaks for zinc coming up on the spectrum and it looks to be fairly pure so so this is zinc white I think so yeah Libby what does that mean this is extraordinary absolutely extraordinary and to have zinc in the upper layer you might just get that but in the lower layer that's a crazy thing to use it spits you know it dries so slowly it cracks it's it's translucent it occurs to me that it could be by a faker this could be the end of the road for Darby and Joan unless we can find out if nari was secretly trying out unorthodox paints well there is some suggestion in the research that I've been doing that in that period exactly in the fifties he was experimenting with possibly with with titanium white so if he was using that perhaps he might have also tried his ink quite at the same time as I thought the presence of zinc white paint in Darby and Joan poses a real conundrum I know the painting is a fake or Lowry lied about the fact that he only ever used five colors could there be more to this simple man than he led us to believe what we've come across today is not necessarily unhelpful Lowry could be economical with the truth he would tell us interviewer sometimes what he wanted them to hear or what they wanted to hear and there's also something about the character profile of Lowry which fits with someone not wishing to fess up to using complex pigments our only hope is that we can prove that Larry was experimenting with a range of pigments when he painted Darby and Joan which is signed and dated 1957 but how Bendel has begun to dig deeper but with frustratingly little scientific research done on Larry's paintings he's having to look for evidence in less conventional places he's been trawling through photographs of Lara at work and has a lead on an image from 1957 precisely when we believe he painted Darby and Joan we've just received this lovely photograph of Larry Nia Suja which was taken in 1957 is a very rare color photograph and 1957 is obviously the date of Darby and Joan and there's lots of paint materials for us to have a look yeah are those tubes on the table they are Windsor and Newton tints we go a little bit closer we can see ok me my I mean so we've caught him red-handed and well if you like white handed telling you know little porky's about the paint that he was using when he says I only ever used lead white or flake white there's five four bosses of titanium white in his studio caught out on EDA and if we have a little look around this studio we can zoom in on this box here it's a large box but it's upside down there's a paint label there which tells us what it is if I flip it upside down and we can zoom in a bit I don't know if you could think white I think why doesn't it looks like zinc white it's certainly white you know what's with the stuff well I think we could probably just focus on this a little bit more to be absolutely sure we're getting this right because this is quite groundbreaking stuff we're we're outing Larry and saying that he didn't use the pigments he only said he used now I have copies of a Windsor Newton catalog from the period and if you have a look at the bottom there there's really not many options if you look at all the names of the white it really has to be sink white because for example lead white flake white is accompanied by a number number one or two and we see there a number on the end of our box and there's various otherwise there was so much good names it's titanium white permanent white creminis white and they're all too long so that's what was inked word but also the more I look at it I'm now telling this is just wishful thinking that absolutely looks like a Zed yes I think it must be so larry was a was a closet zinc white user yes we've outed him I wonder what he would have made of this conversation I don't hate up into chuffed Ashley I think I'd like to keep your secrets finding proof that Larry used the pigment found in Darby and Joan is a relief but it will still take a leap of faith for Larry expert to accept it as a genuine work we've got one last throw of the dice in our search for evidence in the paintings favor Larry was at the height of his fame in 1957 and it wasn't just photographers who were being admitted to his studio this is a film about a man who became an artist because he missed a train this happened many years ago he left the station in dementia to suburb and started to walk up the Bolden Road wondering what to do a BBC TV crew shot a documentary about his life that very year and Steve and I have come to a cinema in Manchester to watch it on the original reels speech to make Larry wish to spend his life amongst them painting a world in which other people could see no beauty could there be anything in this snapshot of Larry's life to help Steve's cause now as Larry begins and as time goes by he tells us how he works I start on an empty canvas prefer to paint from the mines I suggest something call it a chimney or church or anything else going along slowly and adding things and in a strange sort of a way it seems to come as we watch Larry at work Steve glimpses something extraordinary there in Larry studio sitting on the mantelpiece Darby and Joan that was them it certainly looked like them hold your horses just a minute they look nice that was it seemed there they are okay that's the painting without a doubt oh my god that's it it's usually my super one got to signature on the front yeah thanks and this one hasn't but cuz he could have done that after it's good non finished thousand oh wow here is if it's not your painting it's really like your painting in Larry's do you amazing that it's on the film absolutely finding Darby and Joan in Larry's very studio is an incredible breakthrough but I want to be sure there's no doubt that Steve's picture is one and the same painting we need to compare a still frame from the film with Steve's picture what we've done is had a high-resolution scan made of that painting and we're trying to compare the high risk scan of this so this is from Larry studio and this is Steve's picture you can see some similarities so look at the bottom of Darby's foot there that little white patch and there it is on Steve's picture there there's a kind of curl of paint round here not that distinct in this scan much clearer here in Steve's picture look at that I mean one thing that is different Steve's picture has a black line here coming down from Derby's Walkingstick here that's not in the 1957 studio picture but having looked at Steve's picture that's a crack that's just a crack in the panel there's nothing surprising about that and what you've got to remember here is that is is the technology I mean this is a high-resolution scan which is what you need in order to be able to recreate all the idiosyncrasies of this painting in this one and of course from 1957 to the 1970s that didn't exist so how could someone have copied it in this level of detail it's just not possible I couldn't agree more and also that's the technical similarities but there's also an artistic one a stylistic one those facial characteristics I mean it's almost impossible for a copyist or for a forger to perfectly replicate features and both portraits have the same look of comical blandness we're feeling increasingly confident that Darby and Joan and lady with dogs are genuine works by Ellis Larry and there's a real chance that will help prove that Steve's third picture crime scene is also authentic we've had x-rays made of all three paintings and they reveal remarkable similarities in the brushstrokes now notice with the lady in the dogs on the Left there's excitable vigorous strokes in the background they are almost identical in the whole way they're applied to the crowd scene on the right but then when you look more closely you can see that there are little black jagged cut out areas possibly to to mark the edge of a figure but they do show the same temperament the same approach now given that we think one is by Larry why shouldn't the other be - it seems like the first bit of good news we've had on the crown seen the x-rays offer a compelling case that lady with dogs and crowd scene were indeed painted by LS Larry and Libby Sheldon thinks there may be even more evidence to support the theory so what I'm looking at here is signature on regular dogs which is environ and seeing is on the pinch here you can see how smooth it is and what a nice line but didn't only use it as a signature and very interestingly on this painting we can see that he's used it in and around the figures just bring that into focus fascinating buyer on the signature borrowing the flavor and is there anything to tell me about the virus itself well it has very interesting edges for it which I think was early ballpoint pens early ballpoint never touched so it would be a very very clever faker to notice that well no that's another link between these two pictures one picture which we think has a very high chance of being Larry and the other now has the same characteristic with the use of borrow any closer yes with evidence mounting in favor of Steve's pictures it's more important than ever to show that his father actually owned them with no receipts to back up any of the sales is there anything to prove that Gerald Eames acquired these pictures in the early 70s I've been back to Gerald's flat on the hunt for clues and finally found something reassuring an estate agents brochure from 25 years ago with all three paintings clearly on display in Gerald's living room Steve's also been busy and he's turned up insurance documents listing the paintings in the early 80s he's even contacted his father's friends and former colleagues in the search for proof and he's received a letter from Gerald's former secretary stating that she clearly remembers seeing the pictures on the wall in his house when she visited in the mid-70s but we'll everything we've done be enough to convince the art market to accept steve's pictures as genuine works by LS Lowry we've convened our own unique panel of four of the country's most prominent ilari experts to offer the final judgment Martin Somers chairman of the LaFave gallery in the 1960s and 70s James Warren former head of modern art at Sotheby's Robin light chairman of the crane Cullen gallery and Jonathan horrid of Bonhams auctioneers a world authority on Larry would he be prepared to offer Steve's pictures for sale at auction as genuine works there is over 200,000 pounds resting on the opinion of these four men and they also hold in their hands the reputation of Steve's father Gerald Ames will they believe that these are three genuine paintings bought by a man with a shrewd eye for English art or other pictures instead ingenious fakes bought by yet another victim of the Lhari forges personally for what it's worth I think these paintings are pylori stylistically forensic Lee we've really got to know the artist and you can see in these paintings all the characteristics but we don't have an unbroken provenance we can't take these pictures back to the very day that Larry painted them if he did and these these four experts in the room behind me are gonna have to come to a conclusion on the basis of physical evidence and the evidence of their eyes now we don't normally do it like that with Larry it really could go either way for Steve when we started looking at these three paintings I'd hoped because Larry is actually a much more modern painter than many we've looked at in the past that finding a provenance trail would be just a little bit more straightforward how wrong I was because that has proved infuriatingly difficult but the physical evidence we found I have to say I think anyway it's incredibly convincing particularly with Darby and Joan I cannot think of any other way that Steve's painting could be anything other than genuine it has to be when we compare it to the painting that we saw in large studio I just cannot see how that could be faked obviously I'm not making the decision you know our committee is but they've got to be right I really think they've got to be right after several hours of deliberation our Lowry experts are ready to deliver their verdict so Jonathan speaking on behalf of the Powell have you reached a verdict yes we have starting with a lady with the dogs what is your conclusion well for that we discussed this one it is the one with the most evidence behind it it's perhaps one of our favorites but we are all unanimous that we think this is by Larry great that's one and Darby and Joan what was your conclusion about this one well we we deliberated we liked the picture very much it's a little unusual in terms of the format and the support it's on but we were all agreed finally that this was a work by Ellis Larry oh that's brilliant news and what did you make of the fact that we found it in that documentary bolero nest you don't mean that when we saw that we couldn't believe it Christie no no it's what you might call a slam dunk isn't it brilliant in terms of seeing it there as he's sitting there in his own living room painting it there it is it just adds to that they our believe that is a perfectly 100% genuine work and just be clear speaking as a professional auctioneer that is how you would catalogue it absolutely I have no doubt whatsoever and I let's move on to the crowd seemed well this is the one that we've deliberated over for longer and discussed the spinners perhaps in a more robust way than the other two I think not it's contentious but there's less to say so it's what we think of it in seeing is where where it's been for the last few years is tested us but on balance we feel that again like the other two it is 100% amazing ease see what do you think mom absolutely I'm absolutely thrilled and delighted and delighted from the father really with the dad it's a tremendous vindication of Gerald Ames a self-made man with a passion for an artist whose work captured the world he'd grown up in how he acquired the pictures still remains a mystery but we've done enough to prove that they are the real thing an absolute is a short simple answer and your father too yeah you would be clean would be delighted if you could you could say can I ask was your verdict unanimous yes it was a unanimous vote we all agreed but just as importantly our investigation has given us an unexpected glimpse behind Larry's carefully cultivated persona of the simple man to reveal an altogether more complex and intriguing artist wasn't it good thing Steve just now so flushed with excitement but it's not just Steven can afford to be excited because I feel we've made real progress we now know so much more about Larry we did also Larry like to create myths around himself I mean like take the story about the five pigments he only use those five pigments and that's reproduced in most of the literature about Larry we now know that isn't true we've outed him and we've taken connoisseurship of Larry a significant step further so it's not just a victory a significant victory for Stephen but actually it's a victory for Larry as well perhaps it's time to take a fresh look at LS Lowry the artist who captured the drama of a crowd in northern Street the quirky characters of an old couple and the enigmatic stylishness of a lady out walking her dogs if you think you have an undiscovered masterpiece we'd love to hear from you at BBC co uk fortune they call fortune is back at the same time next week a family overwhelmed by grief next on bbc1 an intense true story of love and bereavement in a song for Jenny you

Channel: mightwenotbehappy

Views: 376,938

Keywords: fake or fortune, BBC One (TV Network), Education (TV Genre), Season, Fourth series, fiona bruce, phillip mould

Id: fpmDAvk6PYA

Length: 58min 2sec (3482 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 07 2015