Ben Nicholson painting is it Fake or Fortune?

It’s the stuff that dreams are made of – unearthing a long-lost artwork and discovering it’s worth a potentially life-changing fortune.

Welcome to the world of art dealer and art historian Philip Mould and presenter Fiona Bruce. During the past 11 years, they’ve been meeting people who think they’ve done just that – and sometimes they’re right too. The rest, well, they’re presumably left bitterly disappointed.

The series itself could be described as a hidden gem for the BBC – and if you’ve never caught an episode, it’s never too late to give it a try, particularly as the 10th run is about to get underway.

The premise is very straightforward – members of the public submit works they own which they believe could be by a famous artist or sculptor, and therefore worth a lot more money than they originally paid for it. It’s Bruce and Mould’s job to find out whether they’re right – think of them as artistic detectives, and you get the idea.

To uncover the truth, they consult various experts who offer their opinions. Science is often brought into play in an effort to identify the paint used as well as quirks common to a particular artist which might otherwise be invisible to the naked eye. The duo also carry out their own research before a decision is reached.

During the four-part ninth run, which aired last year, they had a 50 per cent success rate, with a 19th century painting known as Arab at Prayer being reattributed to French orientalist Jean-Leon Gerome, and confirming a painting bought by a sheep farmer from Anglesey really was a missing sketch by painter Benjamin West, as he had always suspected it to be.

Other memorable episodes have focused on efforts to prove that Turner painted three scenes belonging to the National Museum of Wales, which had been dismissed as fakes in the 1950s, works believed to be by Munnings and Winston Churchill found in a coal hole, an early Lucien Freud and a work sold twice by Mould himself before being proven to be by the great landscape artist John Constable.

Occasionally, heated discussions have taken place, with an effort to get sketchbooks purportedly belonging to Toulouse-Lautrec verified turning out to be particularly frustrating. No doubt Bruce and Mould are hoping for more straightforward cases this time around but, frankly, it’s the more awkward ones that would even test the little grey cells of Hercule Poirot that really grab the attention.

Via his social media accounts, Mould has revealed that filming for the new run only ended on July 21st, so it’s very much up to date, and that he and Bruce have “traversed the channel and the Atlantic” during their research. We’re looking forward to seeing the fruits of their labours, which begin with a painting which may or may not be by renowned English artist Ben Nicholson, who was famous for his abstract compositions and for being the second husband of sculptor Barbara Hepworth.