Homer Fake or Fortune?

-..500,000, 19 million...

-The art world -

glamour, wealth, intrigue.

95? Selling at 95 million.

Beneath the surface there's a darker place - a world of high stakes and gambles.

International art dealer Philip Mould knows the risks.

He hunts down sleepers - paintings that hide secrets.

-In the past, we looked

-at

-pictures, now, almost, you can look through them.

Paint almost acts like blood at a crime scene.

I'm Fiona Bruce, with over 20 years' experience as a journalist.

Every picture tells its own story, and it's up to us to try and uncover it.

We're teaming up to investigate human dramas and mysterious tales locked in paint.

This story began with a magical discovery at an Antiques Roadshow.

You've got a picture worth up to £30,000.

Bingo!

A rubbish-tip find took Tony and his daughter, Selina, halfway around the world.

Bidding here now at 120,000. I have 130,000.

But no-one could have predicted how it would end.

-That's the first time I've seen it in nearly 15 years.

-Really?

-In the business. This last-minute, yes. Yes.

And I'm selling at 300,000.

Sold.

Right, here we are.

We're at Cobh - or COVE, I think it's pronounced.

-Are you good at sort of shouting out as we go along?

-I'm very good at shouting.

-Whether I'm good at map reading and shouting, I don't know.

-So you can be like a talking sat nav.

"When the ferry docks, turn left."

That's what I reckon.

You've got one of those sort of

"you must obey" but also seductive voices.

In fact, you'd actually make a rather good sat nav.

Philip and I found ourselves in an unusual spot for an art investigation.

We were brought to this quiet corner on the southwest coast of Ireland

by a chance encounter at an Antiques Roadshow.

So you went on a fishing trip but you came back with more than just fish, you came back with these.

Yeah, it's my local spot I fish

cos it's only half a mile walking distance to where I fish,

and so I just gathered them up and took them home.

Most interesting. Have you actually reflected on what's written in the bottom right-hand corner?

"Winslow Homer." Winslow Homer is about the most important water colourist

-at work in America in the 19th century.

-Yeah?

He's one of the great artists who define American art heritage.

You netted something else that day. You've got a picture worth up to £30,000.

THEY LAUGH AND GASP

Bingo! You don't have to cry, my love. It's yours.

It took a couple of days for it to sink in, quite what had happened.

The name Winslow Homer is hugely important.

I mean, he's not known to all people in this country, but in America he's got almost mythical status.

The combination of a great name like that and a painting that had been found on a rubbish dump

was the stuff of fairy-tales.

-HE SIGHS

-I can't wait to get to this place.

I've got this bleary image

of rubbish dumps and treasures and all this sort of business.

Also, once we see it, we'll get a clearer idea of how on earth it could have got there

and who might have put it there.

Tony Varney was the lucky fisherman who found that bundle of pictures

20 years ago, next to a rubbish tip in Youghal, County Cork.

He was living there at the time.

We're hoping that by coming back here we can establish

how they got to the dump and just who the children in this painting might be.

It all started just here.

-What? Just here?

-Just here.

-Just this patch of dirt? That's where you found it?

-Yes.

I pulled up the vehicle here and there were the pictures, simple as that.

Take us back 20 years ago - what was here then?

Just a dirt bank up here,

where you could pull in a vehicle, and a hole in the fence where you could go fishing.

And there was a tip here then, wasn't there?

There was a tip here then which has now, as you can see, it's been turned into a recycling centre.

The thing that intrigues me is who owns this picture?

If you pick something up on a tip, there's the issue...

-OUTSIDE the tip.

-Outside the tip. That's an important differentiation.

The legality of whoever brought it here, should they have owned it, had they half-inched it,

then is it finders keepers? If you find it, does it automatically belong to you?

-I don't know. We need to find out.

-I don't know.

-Looking around me here, looking back to Youghal,

looking out to those mountains, I feel there must be someone out there,

-within the vicinity, who had a connection with these pictures.

-So a local person?

-It stands to reason, doesn't it? Otherwise why dump it here?

-I think it's absolutely fascinating,

and I feel that if we can crack that, we can crack a lot of what these pictures are all about.

I get the impression with Tony, cos he's so laid back,

-that if he hadn't gone by car that day...

-Quite!

-If those paintings had been there and he'd been on foot, he would have just left them.

-I know.

-It's amazing!

-He's obviously a passionate hoarder-type collector, isn't he?

He's one of those people that will pick up anything, and he's picked up a Winslow Homer.

-As long as it is a Winslow Homer.

-That's a good point!

-If it's not a Winslow Homer, of course, everything goes flat.

-Yeah.

-But I'm convinced it is.

I hope that Philip's right, because when I met Tony and his daughter, Selina, at the Roadshow,

I got the feeling there's a lot riding on this for them.

We haven't had time to think,

and all I can say is that we can't believe our luck.

We don't like the picture. It will be restored and sold,

-and the daughter and my grandchildren will benefit from it.

-Very nice, too.

Tony had given the painting to his daughter before the Roadshow.

If my valuation is right, she could now benefit to the tune of £30,000 when this picture sells.

With Tony and Selina keen to sell the picture, we need to get to work,

because there are many unanswered questions.

We're regrouping at our base in the heart of London's art world,

where Philip's head of research, Dr Bendor Grosvenor, has been preparing the ground.

The thing is, I don't want to sound like a total pleb here,

but I'm just not that impressed by this Winslow Homer painting.

I mean, it just doesn't look that great to me, to be honest.

You really have to get your head around how big a name Winslow Homer is.

I mean, in the 19th century, in America, frankly, this man has got no equals.

Have a look at some of these.

This was once the most expensive American painting ever sold.

It now belongs to Bill Gates, and he bought it for a reported 30 million.

-30 million?!

-It's entitled Lost On The Grand Banks.

There's almost a sort of cinematic feeling that the artist is there,

hanging over the event with a camera.

This is entitled Life Line, and it's exactly that - someone being saved out to sea.

I mean, I agree. Those are dramatic, they're gripping, I mean, they're wonderful.

But the little watercolour that Selina and Tony got, it doesn't look anything like these.

That's the key thing about Selina's picture - the fact that it's a watercolour,

because Winslow Homer is the pre-eminent American watercolourist,

-and the auction record for one of his watercolours is nearly 5 million.

-Five million?!

And so what we're doing is showing you the type of stuff

that by association will make those three children highly desirable.

The power of that association is about to be tested.

Selina and Tony have taken the picture to Sotheby's in London,

who bounced it to their art team in New York,

where the leading American experts in Winslow Homer are keen to verify it before putting it up for sale.

The picture has jet-setted a long way from the dusty loft in Selina's home in the West Midlands.

Well, this is basically where the painting's spent half of its life in my loft.

As you can see, it's full of bits and bobs,

lots of it being my father's, as you see here -

some more of his bits he's brought over. Old things that he's had over the years.

Magazines that he just hasn't thrown.

He keeps them. And these are like 1960s.

Some are even older than that. And here's some cards.

It's just full of bits. This is a painting he gave me.

I haven't thrown it. I just put it in the loft, as I treated the other one.

What lay in Selina's loft all those years was the work of one of America's most influential artists,

but my research shows that Winslow Homer was deeply influenced by a period

surprisingly spent in Britain, in 1881.

His love of marine pictures drew him to Cullercoats

on the northeast coast, just a few miles from Newcastle.

I want to show Fiona where Homer honed his skills.

Was there some kind of artistic community here, or did he just happen upon Cullercoats?

By the time he arrived, there were a few artists here.

It's possible he had a conversation on the ship over and someone recommended it.

There's another reason, though - he loved fishing. Fishing populates his pictures.

It's quite possible he just came here because of his enthusiasm.

One critic said that after Cullercoats things completely changed, and they did.

His artistic style completely changed?

Before he came to England, in the early part of his career, in the 1860s,

he was an illustrator of the Civil War, so he always thought like someone who needs to tell a story.

What is it about his paintings and his techniques?

It's the sketchiness, the freedom, the fluency of them.

He would just stand out here on the beach, on the breakwater, and just dash the painting off?

You can't sit down and put up an easel when there's a storm out at sea.

I think what he did was he used sketches. He would have done quick sketches,

but he also used photography, and there are photographs by Winslow Homer.

And I think it was a combination of those things and a great memory.

Artists, great artists, often have that really powerful, visual memory.

I mean, the word "impressionist" is overused,

but I think you can use that word about Winslow Homer.

He was, perhaps, the first American impressionist.

I mean, one of the techniques he used to great effect was to profile his figures.

And in order to heighten the drama, he loved to silhouette his figures against

a big sky or a high sea,

so the sea acts almost like a sort of wall, but a wall for different characters.

This is an example of his love of real, live drama.

Do you recognise where that is?

-That's that building just back there, isn't it?

-Yeah.

It was the lifeboat lookout house, wasn't it?

Yeah. Just look at the quality of the colouring in that.

It's almost like he's a journalistic photographer on the scene.

Yes, it's like it's a snapshot - a moment in time.

I mean, they're very different from the picture that turned up that day at the Antiques Roadshow.

How was it so obvious to you? I know it was signed, but it could have been a fake.

How could you tell that it had the stamp of authenticity, that it really was a Winslow Homer?

Well, have a look at this one. That again is very close to here.

Two or three things. One, there's a crispness and a confidence, and the use of the washes.

And if you look at the colours,

there's a sort of taste for exoticism which we see in that watercolour.

This one, I can begin to see,

has echoes of the painting we saw at the Antiques Roadshow, and the way the faces are done, actually.

The shadow - look, there - on the eye and the eye socket.

You're absolutely right. There's a similar look to our kids.

There were five other pictures found by Tony on the tip.

Perhaps they're the clues we need to unpick the mystery of how they got there.

My head of research, Bendor, has called us back to base

to bring us up to date with some important information about the other pictures.

The most interesting one was this watercolour on the bottom left here.

It's actually a scene of a beach in the Bahamas.

And there's an inscription at the bottom which identifies

that it was painted by someone described as "Her Excellency, Mrs Blake".

Now, Mrs Blake was the wife of the governor of the Bahama Islands,

so that's presumably why she's painting a beach in the Bahamas.

Amongst the other stuff found on the tip was this invitation here, to an exhibition in Jamaica.

And this, it turns out, is a likeness of the Blakes themselves.

-I don't believe it.

-So that's Lady Blake there?

-That's Lady Blake.

-How can you be sure?

-We found other pictures of them and other likenesses, and it all matches up.

-And that's her?

-And this here is the governor himself.

-The governor!

-I can't believe it! We've been looking at them all the time.

-So that was with the painting?

-Yeah.

-And there they are.

We've got a connection here.

The really intriguing thing is the fact that the Blakes were in the Bahamas in the mid-1880s.

We also know that Winslow Homer was in the Bahamas in the mid-1880s.

So, it's possible, given that the Homer was found amongst

this Blake stuff, that there's a connection here that we need to check out.

So, they could have been there at the same time?

-They could have.

-They could have met?

They could possibly have met. Or it's possible that the picture was painted in the Bahamas,

-and that's why there's this beach scene together with it.

-How are we going to take it further?

I've taken this as far as I can go here in the libraries and on the internet.

If we're going to prove this connection between Winslow Homer and the Blakes,

one of us needs to go and have a rummage around in the archives in the Bahamas.

Well, that's straightforward. I'm off to New York this week and I'll go via the Bahamas.

Hang on a minute! You're going to the Bahamas, and I get to go to Coventry?

What's wrong with that?

As well as working as a part-time carer, single mum Selina has four kids.

I can't believe you've got four kids!

You must a been a child-bride! So, talk me through the kids, then.

How old are they?

Eleanor's 17.

Anthony's 15.

Ricky's 12,

and Rose is ten.

They are lovely kids.

They've stuck by me. They are very, very good, loyal, loving children.

They are what I get up each day for. They are good.

So, how do you feel at the moment?

Are you kind of excited, a bit anxious?

I'm excited, but I'm also nervous

cos at the moment, the painting's at Sotheby's,

waiting to find out if it is an original, because they could ring

or write any time now and say, "It's just a copy." So, that's it...

If it does go for what Philip thinks it might, 30 grand or so, that's a lot of money.

-What difference would it make to you to have that kind of money?

-Gosh, loads.

I've never had anything like that. £30, let alone 30 grand!

I just know that the four children will have a secure little nest-egg

for them, between the four of them.

It'll give them a good start, so, yeah.

I'm following in Winslow Homer's footsteps to Nassau in the Bahamas.

I want to know why he painted our picture and who the subjects are.

From Homer's letters, we know he landed here in December 1884

and that he stayed at the Royal Victoria Hotel.

I'm hoping they have a record of his visit.

This is looking a bit strange.

There's no obvious hotel here.

And over there, there looks...

like a slightly grand-looking building.

And then there's something over there in that corner, but...

..this is the place where the hotel should be.

The Royal Victoria Hotel was the only hotel on the island when Homer came here to paint.

It was a glamorous retreat for the social elite.

The only thing that remains is the silk cotton tree, a feature of the hotel for almost a century.

Bendor's research says it was from this perch a calypso band played for guests like Homer.

That's disappointing. These great gateposts that promised a story

and sort of delivered nothing, really.

But it's not all bad, because I know that there is the National Records Office in town, open tomorrow,

and with any luck, it'll throw up something.

Back in London, I'm eager to get some legal advice, because what worries me

is whether Tony and Selina really own the picture.

What exactly does the saying "finders keepers" mean?

And what checks need to be done?

Dick Ellis set up the Art and Antiques Squad at Scotland Yard in 1989.

He now works as an investigator, recovering stolen works of art.

Sotheby's say they are doing what's called "due diligence". What does that involve?

It's looking through the background, the provenance of an object.

Is the person who's offering it for sale a genuine owner?

Everything that the major auction houses sell is checked against

the stolen art databases to ensure that these things aren't recorded somewhere as stolen.

So, due diligence now is a very, very important part of buying and selling works of art.

The thing that struck me is that Tony found this painting with a few other paintings just outside a dump.

-Does that mean it's his? It doesn't belong to the council?

-No, it doesn't entirely.

As this was in Ireland, you have to look at the Irish law, but it's very similar to the English law.

And what the common law, going way back,

said was that property which you find, if you take it at appropriation,

if you do that with no dishonesty, in other words, you think, "This has been abandoned, it's dumped."

In law, you actually have a title to that property, as you found it.

Is that a posh way of saying "finders keepers"?

Yes, that's exactly what they say.

The only person who has a superior claim of title to that object is, if you like, the real owner.

-The person who...

-This is important, then. Even if I'd thrown something away,

-knowingly thrown it away, I could change my mind and then have a claim on getting it back?

-Yes.

So not entirely straightforward for Tony and Selina.

The painting's owners could come forward and claim it.

But we still don't know how the picture ended up in Ireland.

And with Philip investigating in the Bahamas,

Bendor has been digging deeper, too.

Homer was commissioned by Century Magazine in 1884 to go out to the Bahamas,

to illustrate an article which was designed to get wealthy Americans to go to the islands in the winter.

These are some of the illustrations that he used, but what I really want to find out is whether there's proof

of any link between Homer's trip to the Bahamas and the Blakes' time as governor of the Bahamas.

And I think the evidence is quite encouraging so far.

First of all, we've got Mrs Blake herself, who was a talented amateur painter,

so she probably would have taken some interest in this famous American coming to the islands.

And then we've got Governor Blake.

He was quite an enlightened colonial governor,

and he wanted to get new people to his island, and more importantly, new money to his island.

So he probably also would have taken an interest in Winslow Homer's work

in trying to get all these rich Americans to the Bahamas.

I just really hope that Philip can find some direct evidence that the Blakes met Homer when he was there.

The local newspaper could be the place to find evidence that Homer met the Blakes.

From Homer's letters, we know he landed in Nassau in December of 1884 and spent most of the winter here.

So at least I know which year to pinpoint.

It seems that the first newspaper that's published in December is the Nassau Guardian,

and even the front page is just full of government notices all starting, "His Excellency, the Governor".

Blake must have looked like a powerful man in his time.

What I'm looking for is some sort of social occasion

or some major ceremonial event in which the artist was involved,

because there's probably a fairly small pool

of international famous figures that come and go here.

You'd have thought there may have been some brushing up with the governor.

So this is now January the 3rd. Now, things are livening up in town. There's a party

for adults, and for children, given by the governor.

Not exactly listed prominently, but in a bunch of other attendees, look what I've just found.

"Mr Homer". So Mr Homer's at the big ball.

It also lists what everyone wore.

It seems that the theme of the ball was Arabian, so you can imagine all the sort of colour,

an excuse for really going over the top.

How extraordinary. They've identified what the children are wearing.

"Miss Blake, Princess Parizade."

Cripes!

"Master A Blake, Prince Bahman.

"M Blake, Prince Perviz."

Winslow Homer could have been doing a portrait

of the children dressed up for the ball.

This now explains it.

Winslow Homer was portraying the children of the governor and Lady Blake.

Isn't it astonishing how you have a hunch

and you roll up your sleeves and go deep into the times and the preoccupations

of the times, and in the trivia, the sort of celebrity trivia,

just like the sort of stuff we get in "Hello!" magazine-type stuff today,

there lies a reference which gives us the key into determining what this picture is about.

So Homer and the Blakes met each other.

To find such provenance for a picture like this is a great step forward.

My next stop is New York.

Sotheby's has met the deadline to complete their due diligence checks on the picture.

It's been given the go-ahead to make the sale in a week's time.

But the picture must still be authenticated for sale by American Winslow Homer experts.

They've just returned their verdict and I'm anxious to hear it.

Liz Beaman from Sotheby's has their report and our freshly-restored watercolour.

Liz, this looks amazing. The colours are so much fresher.

The whole thing looks crisper. It's almost as if it's got a complete new set of clothing.

Now, put me out of my misery. I committed myself on national television.

I valued this at £30,000.

I now need to find out what your authority has said.

Is it or is it not a work by Winslow Homer?

Well, it was a lengthy process. We sent it to Abigail Booth Gerdts, who's the director of a project

on Homer, trying to compile all known works that the artist has ever done.

And after a careful inspection, she is able to confirm its authenticity as a Homer.

Praise the Lord!

OK, so now what impact is that going to have on value?

I put 30 grand on it, as you know. Can we improve on that?

We think it's actually worth significantly more.

-We've placed a value of 150 to 250,000.

-Wow!

-I mean, that's £100,000-plus for us?

-Yes.

-Do you really think it'll make that?

-I have to think that at that enticing estimate

and with this exciting story

of the discovery, it should do quite well.

That amazing news has reached back home.

In Coventry, Selina has received an important delivery.

Here I have my catalogue that Sotheby's New York

have sent over to me, with, hopefully, a print of the picture in there.

I am so excited.

This is it. I know it's all happening now.

Sotheby's contacted me to say that they'd had great news, that it was an original,

and then they actually told me that the value was wrong.

And so instantly, I thought, "Oh, you know, nowhere near as much,

"but I'm grateful of everything and anything."

And she said, "No, the actual value is 150 to 250."

And I said, "pounds"?

She says, "No, thousands."

And I didn't take it very well.

She rings me up at work and she told me what they had valued it at, sort of anywhere from 150,000.

I said, "You do realise that's a quarter of a million?"

And with that, off she went to be sick again!

Oh, my God! There it is.

"Winslow Homer, 1836-1910, Children Under A Palm."

SHE LAUGHS 150,000 to 250,000.

So, as you can see, I'm very...

Very chuffed.

I'm so pleased for her, and, erm,

just happy. I'm stuck for words, actually, so...

Oh. Oh, I see.

"150,000 to 250,000."

-All that for that.

-I know.

-I can't believe it until it's sold.

That's all I can say.

Then I you'll see me excited.

And probably bloody legless!

So, good health to Winslot Homer.

-"Winslow," Dad.

-I... What's his name? I don't even know his name yet!

-Winslow!

-W-W-Winslow?

-Winslow.

-My teeth...

Four days before the sale, and Selina is ready to fly to New York.

-Selina, what have you got in these bags?

-I'll slide it. I don't know.

-I'm sure someone's put bricks in them.

-How long are you going for? Two months(?)

-So this is it?

-Yeah.

-The big off. How are you feeling?

Very, very nervous. Very nervous.

Yeah. Very tearful.

Are you? Why are you tearful?

-I am just... I don't want to leave the kids.

-Mum, can I have a hug?

-Yeah, we're ready.

-Come on, then.

-Well, we are, I don't know about you, Dad.

How many cases have you got?! 'Selina's dad, Tony, and her partner, Bob

'are travelling to the sale with her. It's their first visit to America.'

See ya!

-Bye! Goodbye!

-Good luck!

It just means so much to Selina and to her family.

I desperately hope that it all works out for her as she wants it to,

and that the painting sells, that it makes money for her and her gorgeous, gorgeous kids.

# New York

# Concrete jungle where dreams are made up

# There's nothing you can't do

# Now you're in New York... #

Oh, wow, look at that big cluster of buildings.

What is that?

# ..There's nothing you can't do

# Now you're in New York

# These streets will make you feel brand new

# Big lights will inspire you

# Let's hear it for New York

# New York, New York... #

I can't believe that we are over here from a painting.

It was just a piece of junk,

a piece of trash, as they call it here!

Just a bit of rubbish, you know, that somebody had discarded and...

Gosh, and the journey it's now brought us on - exciting one,

thrilling one.

# Big lights will inspire you

# Let's hear it for New York

# New York, New York... #

Coming to America gives Selina the chance to learn more about Winslow Homer.

Two days before the sale, she's travelled to see one of the best collections of the artist

on the east coast and to meet Mark Simpson, the collection's curator.

I love the ones of the sea, because they're the ones...

-He's done a lot of them, hasn't he?

-He has.

-A lot of sea paintings.

-The picture that you have, I mean, it's 1885, is that right?

-Yes.

It is in '84, '85 and '86 that he makes the biggest statements about the human figure, so it's great that

your watercolour concentrates on those three little kids and gives them so much space in the picture.

The only other times when that really happens in his oil paintings

is in the '80s in a painting like this, called Undertow,

which is one of those great dramatic scenes.

Now, to see this, though, we need to walk back, we need to see it from afar,

because Homer anticipated that his pictures would be seen from a distance.

-Gosh. That's a big painting!

-THEY LAUGH

It is bigger... It is big, it is, and it is, in fact,

the one of the biggest that he did, that's his kind of grand scale.

-That's an original of his, that is an original.

-Yes.

What are you thinking about when you see it for the first time?

I'm just actually amazed.

Just the detail, everything.

Don't you get the feeling of the sea and the water and the cold?

What's the story? What do you think's going on?

It's just... I don't know really, it's bit of a mix there, really.

You know, you've got one going off that way, one helping the other,

and I just... I don't know, I just don't understand art,

-if you understand me!

-HE LAUGHS

But I'll bet you do, because what you said just then is absolutely right.

It is about helping one another. Something else is going on,

something maybe about the idea of how it is that...

we can all empathise with

the struggles that take place in the world,

we're all part of it, we all work against forces that weigh us down,

or push against us in ways we don't want to go.

You could put... Certain ones you could put yourself in that picture.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, yes... And like you said about her struggling.

A lot of emotional struggles I've had,

so I suppose that would probably be one, you know,

I say I could put myself in.

And you start to express the feelings, don't you?

Feel what they're feeling and actually look into it,

wonder what's going on, rather than just looking at it and walking past.

It's a very powerful painting, isn't it?

Back in London, I'm trying to dig up more information about how the

picture could have ended up by a tip in a remote corner of Ireland.

I've been doing some digging for the lives of Sir Henry and Lady Blake, and I'm beginning to get a picture

of how these two paintings came to Ireland.

Now, the Blakes had a pretty amazing life - they travelled the world.

After Sir Henry finished as Governor of the Bahamas, he and Lady Blake,

they went on to similar postings in Jamaica, then they went to Hong Kong until he retired.

And then in the early days of the 20th century, they returned to the place of their birth,

to Ireland and to a house called Myrtle Grove, which is a pretty

important house in Irish history, because Sir Walter Raleigh lived there, as it turns out.

Now, the thing is Myrtle Grove

in Youghal

is just three miles from the dump where Tony found the pictures,

so the question is... how did they get there?

In New York, 24 hours before the sale, a major problem emerges.

Philip, on business in another part of America, gets a call from Selina, desperate for advice.

Hi, Selina, how are you?

-Hi, Philip. I've been better.

-SHE LAUGHS

-A lot better.

-Oh, dear, what's the problem?

I was out in New York today and had a phone call from Sotheby's,

asking me to come in any time and just have a discussion

in regards to a phone conversation they've had with the Blakes.

-So I said, "No, I'll come straight in."

-Sorry, say that again.

-Had a...

-They've had a conversation with the Blakes?

-The Blakes, yeah.

-Some descendants of the Blakes.

-Yeah.

-Right.

So, basically been told that they've put a claim onto the painting.

I've got three options, really - either withdraw it from sale and Sotheby's keep ownership of it

till I get a lawyer and prove that it's mine,

sell the painting and give them a percentage,

which they've come back with they want 75% of the sale price.

-Right.

-Or sell the painting

and the money stays ownership of Sotheby's in their bank

until ownership of the painting

has been proven again, so...

So have you considered those three options?

I have considered them,

but it's like out here I've got...

It's the afternoon here, England's all shut up, it's late now,

I've got no legal advice, nothing, so I really don't know what to do, what to do for the best.

It's come as a mass, mass blow, this has, this was not what I expected.

'No, I feel for you, and I can understand how that must put you in

'a real quandary at this late date, this late time of day.'

Now, whatever I have to say must be predicated with the fact

that this is your decision and I can't influence it at all, but what would concern me, and

I'm now just speaking purely from a professional point of view, what would concern me is a picture that

people are razzed up to consider and possibly commit funds to which

is then withdrawn can sometimes damage the picture's commercial prospects in the short term.

It might be rather difficult to re-present it with the same energy

in a sale in four or five months' time.

I can't believe this, I really can't believe it!

Dad's going to be wondering what the hell's happened.

It turns out that Sotheby's legal checks had already established a link with the Blake family.

'Back home, their European general counsel, Tom Christopherson, explains.' So who did you talk to?

We spoke to Iona Murray, who lives at Myrtle Grove,

which is the Blake house,

and she is the granddaughter of Lady Blake.

And what did she tell you?

We explained to her that we'd received a very valuable Homer

which had been found 20 years ago on a disused tip nearby.

We said we wanted to know whether she had any records or recollection of this painting or having owned it,

or whether in fact she'd had any burglaries as well that could explain its appearance.

She called us back few weeks later to confirm that she'd

discussed this with members of the family and that they had no record of owning the painting

and hadn't registered any burglaries at Myrtle Grove with the police.

When you were doing your due diligence, did you show a photo

of the painting to the Blake family?

No, we didn't. When we went to see them at the beginning,

we described that we'd found a valuable painting by Homer, in fact had a long conversation about Homer,

and Iona Murray told us about a family story that they thought

Homer had once painted with Lady Blake, so she knew exactly who he was.

-Why didn't you show them a photo? It would have been easily done.

-I'm not sure we had one then.

We did show her one later.

We didn't at that point, we just described the painting and asked her to see if they owned any.

Bit of a mistake in hindsight, do you think?

I don't think so. If they'd asked for it, we'd have sent it.

And we sent them a sale catalogue several weeks before the sale, and it was in there.

-And did they respond to that?

-No.

Well, what this whole episode has shown me is that no matter how much due diligence you do,

at the last minute, someone somewhere can come out of nowhere

and say, "This painting is mine," and there's nothing you can do to prevent that happening.

Late night in New York,

and the Blake descendants contesting ownership

have told Sotheby's they think the picture should be sold and have suggested that Selina

should be entitled to a quarter share of the proceeds.

We've now heard she's rejected the offer and is asking for them to provide proof of ownership.

Both parties have, however, agreed to let the sale go ahead and sort out the proceeds later.

Selina wants to see the picture one last time.

There it is.

I just cannot believe

that it's the same one.

Oh, God.

I don't think I want to get rid of it now, it looks really nice.

God, you... Of course,

-you have...

-SHE LAUGHS

God, that is absolutely wonderful.

Even though I've moaned about it, to be honest, if I would be honest,

I won't let Dad hear me say this, though,

but I am actually... honoured to have had,

for the nine years that I've had it,

to be actually to say I've had a piece of art by him.

Tony and Selina have decided to join me in the auction room to watch the painting being sold.

I have 120,000, bidding here now at 120,000.

I have 130,000. 140,000. 150,000.

160,000.

At 160,000, still on my left now at 160...

The room is filling up with eager art buyers.

Our picture is lot 16, so we won't have long to wait.

Just seeing if Philip's bidding on anything.

Down in the centre now, lady's bid. At 115,000, then, in the centre.

Then in a dramatic development, ten minutes before the painting

is due to sell, Selina is summoned by Sotheby's staff.

I've just been called into a side room and basically been informed

that I either take 25% sale price

or...the opposition, whatever you want to call them,

are stopping me selling the painting.

And I have asked, being as the painting as in my name,

it's legally mine to sell, as far as I was concerned, and they've

said it's not, they've took legal advice and can stop the sale.

We must try and find the legal department

and find out what's going on, because you're not being given enough information on this.

I mean, if there is an injunction or a legal process has taken place,

I think you at least need to know about it, you know.

-Let's go and find somebody, shall we?

-Come on, then, let's go.

I don't know where the hell anybody is.

But it seems that this is not a negotiation at this point, this is an ultimatum.

Why are they doing this now?

How have they got the legal right to do this to me now?

What have they got?

Did you not know any of this yesterday?

I mean, that they'd got the legal right to stop the auction.

I thought the three options I was given yesterday were my options.

I didn't know they'd changed.

Do they have any legal basis for that. Is there an injunction?

So why are you responding as you are, then?

Even though it could damage the commercial prospect for the picture by withdrawing it at this stage?

No. No, OK.

Can we withdraw it?

No, withdraw it, then. That's it, no other option, have we?

-The decision is yours.

-Well, no. No.

Yeah, just let them know that they've damaged the painting.

But I think Selina's message is clear.

OK, thank you. I understand your position.

Selina must now break the news to Tony.

Are you all right, Dad?

Right.

Did you hear?

Did you hear?

Did you hear? Lots 16 and something else has been withdrawn.

No? Lot 16.

Yeah, what about it?

-That one. It's been withdrawn.

-Has it been withdrawn?

-Yeah.

-Why?

Because...the others...

have stopped it without any legal documents, stopped the sale.

They wanted to give me 25% of the sale and they have 75,

and I weren't willing to do it.

So the grand finale's gone, then?

That's it.

It's real meltdown. I've known some dramatic moments at auction, but not quite like this.

Referring back to the catalogue, particular attention to article one....

Can you believe it? I just got a tap on the shoulder.

It's from the descendant of the Blakes, he's over here in America, and he wants to claim his picture!

He also wants to talk to me.

Simon Murray is the brother of Iona Murray,

who was Sotheby's original contact at Myrtle Grove in Ireland.

He's agreed to speak to us on camera.

Am I right in thinking that you are

a descendant of the Blakes and you are the other party in all of this?

That's correct, yeah. Sir Henry Blake is my great-great-grandfather.

How did you get to hear about the picture coming up at auction?

Really, we were on holiday in New York,

and my mother rang up in a bit of a state on Tuesday morning and said, "I see in the Daily Telegraph today,

"and I only bought it because I wanted to get the news

"about the Chelsea Flower Show, I see that they're selling the picture in Sotheby's New York."

And she asked me to see what I could do.

But am I right in thinking though that Sotheby's contacted your mother

and asked her whether there'd been any thefts?

No, not directly.

What happened was the Irish contact for Sotheby's

made contact with my mother's house, Myrtle Grove,

and left some telephone numbers asking them to communicate,

and unfortunately,

there was something wrong with the numbers, they didn't work.

And my mother was in fact out of Ireland at the time,

so for one reason and another, those calls were never chased up by Sotheby's.

-They never sent her a photograph of the painting.

-But didn't she have the catalogue, though?

No. They never sent the catalogue.

Was not a catalogue, then, in the receipt of some part of the family?

No, no, she's not had the catalogue.

She's wasn't told that it was in the sale, and the first thing she knew about it

was when it appeared in the Telegraph.

Are you confident, looking back on this, that enough due diligence was done?

I'm confident about the due diligence. That was done here,

and we established a link at the beginning or a potential link,

and we followed the link up.

We checked with the local police, the local press,

we checked with Art Loss Register, and then we checked with the family.

Because you've got Simon Murray, who is claiming that

if he'd known about it or that if his mother had known about it, they would never have

let the sale go ahead, and the first they knew about was they saw an article in a newspaper.

-I'm quite surprised about that.

-That's what he's claiming.

-I'm still surprised.

We spoke to his sister, who confirmed she'd spoken to his mother.

I'm mindful of the fact that you have also, in order to allow

this sale to proceed, offered the family a proportion of the proceeds.

Why have you done that if it's your property?

Well, I view it really as...

Miss Rendall must have had an emotional roller-coaster, I can see that, and I sympathise

with her greatly, it must have been horrifying for her,

and I wanted to avoid years of litigation.

And also it was, if you like, a kind of finder's fee.

-What is it that you do for a living, as a matter of interest?

-I'm a... I'm a...

I was formerly a criminal barrister...

..and now I do civil...civil law.

So you're pretty well equipped to handle this yourself, then?

I really hope it doesn't get down to that.

As I say, I empathise sincerely with

Miss Rendall's position.

It must be horrible, she thought she'd won the jackpot.

They picked up some rubbish off a tip, they discovered it was worth £100,000, and she's probably already

in her mind spending it on swimming pools and cars and so forth,

but the reality is this is a family picture.

If this is a family portrait, why don't you want the portrait?

You know, why don't you want the memory of the three ancestors, rather than the money?

Myrtle Grove, like all these old houses,

needs a lot of money to maintain it,

and unfortunately, it seems that this is a valuable picture.

We haven't got any other valuable pictures.

We've got a lot of pictures of members of the family,

but none of this quality.

And so it seems unfortunately that the best way to raise funds to repair the house would be to sell it.

This is our painting that was stolen from us.

Well, you don't know that for sure, though, do you? I mean, there's...

The circumstantial evidence, Philip, is overwhelming.

I mean, it really is.

-It couldn't have been given away?

-It seems...

That is...

very highly unlikely.

How customary is it that something like this can happen at the last minute like this?

It's the first time I've seen it in nearly 15 years in the business.

-Really?

-This last minute? Yes, yes.

It's rare.

Three weeks later, and the painting is locked in the vaults of Sotheby's New York.

I decided to see how Selina was doing back home.

At the moment, we're just waiting for him to come forward with some evidence.

-What? Evidence that...

-They had the painting.

That the painting WAS in the possession of the Blake family.

Yeah, or in their home, because they're saying it was stolen 20 years ago.

But they never knew they had it, they never reported a break-in.

That's what I'm saying, I can't get my head round it, I really can't.

I just don't know how somebody can say, "That's ours, although we never knew we had it."

-What did you say to the kids when you came home? I did think about that.

-Oh, actually, not a lot.

The kids met at the airport, which was lovely, erm...

I was just really upset.

All I wish is that they'd have come forward when they were first contacted.

It would have saved a lot of heartache, a lot of grief, an awful lot of money.

This painting has cost me so much money that I never ever had in the first place.

It's now three years since the painting was taken to the Roadshow,

and since the auction it's been locked in a safe.

Incredibly, there's still no resolution.

Selina and the Murrays are at loggerheads, and lawyers are involved on both sides.

Can you believe it is a year since that auction?

-And we're no further forward.

-I have to say, you know,

for all the hopes she had for this picture have not materialised.

The Murray family have been in touch with the Art Loss Register.

Selina has had a visit from the police, warning her she may have handled stolen goods.

It's got really messy.

I really feel for Selina, my heart bleeds for her,

but we've got to try and see it from the other point of view.

Simon Murray is claiming that this is their family portrait.

I mean, we're in real stalemate.

In the meantime, Simon Murray says he's found

definitive evidence regarding the provenance of the painting and its connection with his family.

Well, let's start off, then. Who are these people?

Well, in the middle you've got Olive, she's my great-grandmother,

and her two little brothers, Arthur on the left and Morris on the right.

Edith Blake, Olive's mother, was a very keen correspondent

with her sister, writing long letters, and they were

full of gossip and chat, and they're a wonderful record.

Entertaining at Government House was clearly one of the key parts of colonial social life.

She writes as follows, "The children's fancy ball last night was such a pretty sight.

"If only you could have seen it, our children looked very well.

"Olive, as Princess Parizade, wore a bodice and upper skirt

"of gold colour with Nassau pearls and beads and fringed with sequins.

"It was the same dress that I had worn years ago, of course cut down to fit Olive."

-Oh, how wonderful.

-How incredible is that!

"With gold stars and crescents, an underskirt of crimson

-"with oriental embroidery."

-Here it is.

-There it is.

"On her head she had a veil of crimson gauze."

"I hope to have a sketch of the three children in their fancy dresses done

"by Mr Homer, an American artist who is spending the winter here.

"He lunched here one day and brought some of his very clever sketches for me to see.

"It was a great treat seeing anything in the shape of a drawing once more."

And then, on the 21st of January, she writes another letter to her sister.

"This morning, Mr Homer finished his sketch of the three children in their fancy dresses.

"It is, I think, exceedingly clever.

"It is merely a sketch, not any attempt at finish, but the colour is very good,

"and it makes an interesting little souvenir of the ball."

That is as good a documentation of a work of art's existence and happening you could ever get.

And she writes of the room in Government House where the ball was held, and she writes as follows,

"At one end of the room stood a huge earthenware jar that we picked up in the backyard of a cottage here."

And that jar then appeared in the painting...

and that jar is still in the possession of the family.

-So that's at Myrtle Grove?

-Yeah.

-Isn't that staggering?

-Wow.

-The more you know about something and its history -

and this is just absolutely bristling now with history - the more fascinating it becomes.

When you first found out about the picture, you were thinking you'd sell it.

-Now that you've found out so much about it, do you still feel like that?

-I think we'd rather keep it,

because it is such a special picture,

and as my great-great-grandmother said, the colours are wonderful, the composition is very pleasing,

and it's a very significant part, I think, of my family's history,

and we'd love to... Well, we really want it back.

I like it. I actually enjoy looking at it.

I learnt to appreciate it, I suppose.

It's coming up to two years since we last visited Selina at home,

where she's hung a copy of the painting on her wall.

12 months ago, you know, I would have willingly sat and sorted this out with him, but obviously I never

had the opportunity to, because by the time I'd got home he'd got other people involved.

So if he was to contact me and asked to sort it out, I would

just ask him to go through my lawyer at the moment.

I just don't know how long this is going to go on.

I'm just answering questions that they're throwing at us

as honestly as we can with...with...

That's it, erm...

I don't know whether they're intending on striking a deal,

I have no idea. At the moment, it's just going round and round and round.

This small painting has had a huge emotional impact

and pulled everyone involved with it in different and unpredictable directions.

It's really not that unusual for a painting, particularly an old

painting like this, to get mired in this type of controversy.

Having met Simon Murray now, I have a much greater understanding

of why this painting means to much to him, to his family,

but one of the questions we set out to answer at the beginning was how did that picture get to the dump?

And we still don't know. And what about the value of the painting?

I mean, how is that affected now?

Ironically, the value's probably gone up, because now have provenance

as to when it was painted, why it was painted, for whom, who it represents.

I mean, provenance, a story like that, is so rare in our world.

And also just think! This started out life as a piece of paper found on a rubbish dump.

We've managed to transform it into a massively documented and significant work of art.

The money isn't the big issue here, it's the morals, and the way

we've been dealt with is the bit I think upsets me more.

If Dad hadn't picked it up, the painting would've been ruined,

you know, and then that piece of history would have been lost.

You can only be honest.

Whether our honesty loses us the painting, so be it.

I've had a great journey. It was never ever intended,

never expected, and it's been a really wonderful experience.

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