''Britain's Lost Masterpieces'' is a factual
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002 documentary television series that aims to uncover overlooked art treasures in British public collections, in conjunction with
Art UK
Art UK is a cultural, education charity in the United Kingdom, previously known as the Public Catalogue Foundation. Since 2003, it has digitised more than 220,000 paintings by more than 40,000 artists and is now expanding the digital collection t ...
.
It is presented by
Bendor Grosvenor, along with art historian
Jacky Klein (series 1) and political activist
Emma Dabiri (series 1 to 5). The series also features the
art restoration
The conservation and restoration of cultural property focuses on protection and care of cultural property (tangible cultural heritage), including artworks, architecture, archaeology, and museum collections. Conservation activities include prev ...
work of
Simon Rollo Gillespie
Simon Rollo Gillespie (born 26 May 1955) is a British conservator-restorer of fine art, and an art historian. He is known particularly for his work with Early British and Tudor portraits, although his practice extends across all periods from ear ...
. In North American syndication, the series is called ''The Art Detectives''.
Development
Each episode begins with Grosvenor locating a prospective masterpiece in the digitized collection of Art UK.
The restoration work of Gillespie's shop is key to a successful attribution.
There was a minor controversy regarding similarities between ''Britain's Lost Masterpieces'' and the previous show Grosvenor was on, ''
Fake or Fortune?
''Fake or Fortune?'' is a BBC One documentary television series which examines the provenance and attribution of notable artworks. Since the first series aired in 2011, ''Fake or Fortune?'' has drawn audiences of up to 5 million viewers in t ...
''
The
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
delayed production of Series 5, planned for Spring 2020. Production resumed in October 2020, only for Grosvenor to catch COVID-19.
Episodes
Series 1
Series one, comprising three episodes, was aired in September and October 2016.
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Series 2
Series two was aired in September and October 2017.
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File:Portrait of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (by Peter Paul Rubens).jpg, Portrait of George Villiers
(attributed to Rubens)
File:View of Nomentano Bridge by Joseph Wright of Derby.png, Ponte Nomentano
The Ponte Nomentano (called Pons Lamentanus during the Middle Ages) is a Roman bridge in Rome, Italy, which carried the Via Nomentana over the Aniene ( la, Anio). Having lain outside the city limits for most of its history, the picturesque brid ...
(attributed to Wright
Wright is an occupational surname originating in England. The term 'Wright' comes from the circa 700 AD Old English word 'wryhta' or 'wyrhta', meaning worker or shaper of wood. Later it became any occupational worker (for example, a shipwright i ...
)
File:Richard Vaughan 2nd Earl of Carbery.jpg, The 2nd Earl of Carbery (attributed to Lely)
File:Frances Vaughan, Countess of Carbery (d.1650) by Mary Beale in 1670.jpg, The Countess of Carbery (attributed to Beale
Beale is an English surname. At the time of the British Census of 1881, its relative frequency was highest in Dorset (6.3 times the British average), followed by Huntingdonshire, Hampshire, Sussex, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Warwickshire, Kent and ...
)
Series 3
Series three was aired in August 2018.
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Series 4
Series four was aired in October and November 2019.
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Series 5
The first two episodes of Series five were aired in February 2021, followed by a third in February 2022.
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References
External links
* {{BBC programme
Guardian reviewFeature on the premiere
BBC television documentaries
Documentary television series about art
2016 British television series debuts
English-language television shows