Fake or Fortune?

BBC Two Northern Ireland HD

9:00 PM to 10:00 PM

Thursday 3 April

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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 19th-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