Tom Roberts Fake or Fortune?

At 42 million...

The art world, where paintings change hands for fortunes.

Sold, thank you very much.

But for every known masterpiece,

there may be another still waiting to be discovered.

This is it.

International art dealer Philip Mould 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.

-Ta-da!

-Oh, wow!

Every case is packed with surprise and intrigue...

Is it or isn't it a Freud, then?

..but not every painting is quite what it seems.

It's a journey that can end in joy...

This is definitely by Paul Delaroche.

..or bitter disappointment.

I can't cope with this roller-coaster.

What a nightmare!

In this episode, for the first time, we travel to Australia

where we're on the trail of a painting believed to be by

one of the country's most famous artists, Tom Roberts.

Could the man responsible for these iconic works of life in the outback

also have given us this intriguing picture of a dejected artist?

It's a story that's been put into paint.

The stakes are high for the owners,

who are recovering from a dramatic change in their own circumstances.

I feel so responsible for our position.

It's a quest that delves into the artist's close links to Britain.

Could forensic tests provide crucial new evidence?

Wow! That is our first link between Roberts and the painting.

But Australia's top artist is also one of the most faked.

The strokes in the sky, you know,

particularly those flat-edged areas, looks a bit like yours.

This is terrifying.

It's a journey that could prove life-changing.

In this envelope here we have the destiny of your picture.

-Are you ready for it?

-Yeah.

-Mm-hmm.

We're often contacted by viewers from abroad

who think they've discovered a lost masterpiece.

And very occasionally, one is promising enough for us

to bring the picture to the UK for a closer look.

One such special delivery has travelled over 9,000 miles from Australia.

It never fails to excite me when a picture comes.

That sense of anticipation is,

it's one of the fun things about being an art dealer.

And however much information you have before you see a painting,

it's seeing it in the flesh that does it.

It's the moment when either your fantasies come crashing

to the ground or new hopes and ambitions start arising.

On first impressions, this looks like

one of those intriguingly evocative 19th-century paintings

and it's titled Rejected.

This is exactly the sort of picture with which I'm familiar.

It's a Victorian genre painting.

This is a picture of the type you get a lot in the 19th century,

that tells a story.

So this is an artist, it appears,

it's in a studio, you've got all the props.

In the bottom right-hand corner is an easel.

There he is, looking at something that's been rejected -

presumably his own work of art.

That clearly is a painting that for some reason

has failed to get into an exhibition.

They've thought about it and told him,

"Sorry, mate, you're not good enough, we don't like it."

Then you've got that really poignant way that his wife is looking up,

only just one eye, you can only just make it out,

with a look of sympathy and empathy.

Feels to me like a proper painting, it feels to me high-quality,

ambitious, and what's also very clear,

is that this picture is signed - Tom Roberts, it says.

Could it be that this is a work by THE Tom Roberts,

a British-born painter who is now considered

one of the greatest artists to have worked in Australia?

Born in Dorset in 1856,

Roberts emigrated down under with his family in 1869.

By the start of the 20th century, his ambitious depictions of

working life in the outback led to him being dubbed

the father of Australian Impressionism.

He was also an accomplished painter of interior scenes,

such as this picture, The Sculptor's Studio.

Today, his works take pride of place in Australia's museums

and they are highly sought by collectors.

And this engaging scene could be worth as much as £200,000.

There's therefore a lot to gain if one can attach

with absolute certainty that clear name in the bottom left-hand corner

to this rather beguiling, rather moving painting.

It's undoubtedly a beautiful work,

but the owners have contacted us

because questions have been raised about its authenticity,

and they need our help.

Joe and Rosanna Natoli live in Queensland, Australia.

The former mayor of a local council,

Joe has always been a passionate art collector, but a dramatic downturn

in his fortunes means he now works at a fruit and veg market.

Hello, Rosanna Natoli.

His wife, Rosanna, is a popular TV presenter on a local news show.

A teenager who survived another croc attack

hasn't impressed the girl he was showing off to.

She says the incident was traumatic.

Our shared background in television news provides an ideal way to get in touch.

I've invited Philip to join me in Broadcasting House in London

for a late-night satellite link-up with Joe and Rosanna.

-Hi, Philip.

-Hello there.

Welcome to my domain.

This makes a great change from the art world.

It certainly does. I'm much more comfortable here, I can tell you!

While I've just finished reading the BBC News At Ten,

Joe and Rosanna have got up early to speak to us.

-Ah, there you are.

-Hello.

-Hello!

Oh! Well, Joe and Rosanna,

we're speaking to you from the BBC studio and I gather, Rosanna,

-that you're a local presenter there.

-That's right, that's right.

So I'm sitting, of course, in our studio here on the Sunshine Coast

in Queensland, Australia, talking to you. It's amazing, isn't it?

It's kind of surreal actually.

Well, listen, let's talk about your picture,

how did you come to acquire it in the first place?

Yeah, well, I was just scrolling through different auction sites and,

all of a sudden, I saw this name Tom Roberts come up.

Joe was looking at the website of a provincial English auction house back in 2013,

selling a painting listed as being by Tom Roberts, Australian,

with a suggested title Contemplation

and an initial estimate of just £60 to £100.

We could tell from the photographs that it was something special,

that there was something special about it and the subject matter

spoke to us, and I guess we just thought it was worth a chance.

So what happened in the end? What did you end up paying for it?

Well, it started off obviously at £60 and just kept going on and on.

Obviously, we weren't the only ones who thought this might be something special.

No, it was very frantic and the bidding kept going up

and it got to a point where we knew that our limit was £7,500.

When that bid came in for £7,000, I took a deep breath and thought,

"I have one more bid and this is it,"

I waited patiently and it seemed like forever, but eventually,

the hammer came down, we acquired the work.

It was 2.10, 2.15 in the morning, I couldn't sleep, waiting to tell

Rosanna in the morning that we owned this Tom Roberts.

It's quite an act of faith.

Have you actually shown it to...

Absolutely! A big leap of faith!

Well, good on you, good on you.

But have you actually shown it to anybody out there,

to any academics or scholars and got an opinion?

Yes. That's where it didn't go so well for us.

No. I ended up getting this expert opinion.

Unfortunately, the opinion came back negative.

They basically didn't believe there was any element of the work,

in terms of style, subject and brushstrokes

that resembled that of Tom Roberts.

The expert who examined the painting felt that there were

no elements that related to Tom Roberts' work of the period,

and that therefore it was not likely to be authentic.

After gambling £7,500 on what they thought was a dead cert,

Joe and Rosanna were distraught.

For a leading expert to say no means that you've given us

a bit of a challenge, we're starting on a downer.

We are so hopeful that you can discover some of the truth

behind this fascinating painting.

-Lovely people.

-Weren't they just?

But what a gamble, my goodness.

But, you know, just to have taken that risk alone makes me want

to help them. I don't know whether it's by Tom Roberts, but

I think there's enough there for us to start on a project for this.

Our first step is to track the work back to the point of sale.

The auction house who handled the painting agreed to pass a letter

to the seller, but we've received no further contact

from the last owner, leaving us with no information

about the picture's origins.

We need to start our investigation much earlier,

in late 19th-century London, where Tom Roberts lived and worked.

I want to find out how this city shaped the early part of the artist's career.

And across town, I'm on my way to the National Gallery.

As luck would have it, the gallery is staging a special exhibition

devoted to Australia's impressionists,

which includes some of Tom Roberts' most famous works.

If we're to prove that Joe and Rosanna's picture is a genuine work

by Roberts, it is vital that we get to grips with what it is

that characterises his paintings and makes them so distinctive,

so I've arranged to meet Anthea Callen,

one of the world's leading experts on impressionism,

with a passion for Australian art.

We've got a rare opportunity to admire one of Roberts' masterpieces,

A Break Away!

Look at this picture. I have to say, it's...

-..it's deeply dramatic.

-Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely. The focus of the painting

is the pioneering colonial Australian man.

The whole composition is circling around him,

attempting to control this crazy flock of sheep,

so thirsty from drought that they're rushing to the dam,

knocking the dogs for six in the process.

Roberts composed this painting in 1891,

only a decade before Australia became an independent country.

And this work is celebrated for

capturing a sense of this newly emerging nation.

What it shows us is not only what the outback looked like,

but actually what went on there and this was visualising a new national

identity, which was in the process, at this period, of formation.

And in the skilful lightness of the brushstrokes,

Roberts was pioneering the same style employed by some of

the most famous impressionist painters of the period.

What I love is the way that the forms of the sheep go from clarity

to these shorthand blobs,

just like one might see in someone like Monet.

Absolutely, yeah.

Some of the mark making here is remarkably like Monet.

So we're talking about a new country that's hatching

and a new style of art.

Modern techniques, modern compositions,

contemporary subjects, and Tom Roberts is out there in front.

It's evident from seeing this that we're dealing with a storyteller,

an artist who delights in the narration of emotion and drama.

Could it be, with a different story in mind,

we see those same skills in our picture?

Meanwhile, we've received an e-mail from Joe in Australia,

which unexpectedly raises the stakes for our investigation.

Joe explains that he feels a strong connection to the image

of a rejected artist, because of recent events in his own life.

In 2016, three years after he bought the painting,

Joe's business went bust.

He was forced to sell their home and the family was left bankrupt.

This dramatic fall in fortunes

has had a big impact on Joe's mental health

and he's since suffered from depression.

I feel I placed my family, my wife, my children in that situation.

It was something that I felt

totally responsible and...

and felt terrible about.

It's clear now that this painting could be life-changing for Joe and Rosanna.

This painting is hope, it represents the hope that

we'll be able to have a home of our own again,

a place to bring up our family, a place that is ours,

and also, it's a chance for us to put the past behind us

and move forward,

so it really is so very, very important.

With so much riding on this picture, I'm eager to find new evidence.

Our research shows that Tom Roberts left Australia in 1881,

aged 25, and travelled to London to enrol at the Royal Academy of Arts.

So I've come to investigate his time as a young student artist.

Little is known about him in this period

so I've asked the Academy's chief archivist, Mark Pomeroy, to help me.

Can we find any evidence here that links Tom Roberts

to Joe and Rosanna's painting?

We know that Tom Roberts was a student here at the Royal Academy.

What have you got in this wonderful archive here

that can tell us a bit about that?

We have student records for everyone who ever attended the schools,

all the way from 1769 to now, so we're in the fortunate position of

being able to check basic details for every artist who ever trained here.

If we just go to the entry for the Rs

and if we look at the top of the page here...

Yes, Robert Tom William, painting.

December 6th, 1881.

So that's the date he was formally admitted as a student at the Royal Academy.

For Tom Roberts to come here, all the way from Australia...

..here, to the Royal Academy,

that must have been an incredible thing for him.

It was a hugely ambitious step.

I mean, even in the 1880s, that journey wasn't undertaken lightly.

London was the capital of the world, to all intents and purposes,

and the Royal Academy was regarded as the greatest art school.

There were no more than 20 people a year being

admitted to the schools and so it was incredibly exclusive.

And looking at the painting that we've got here,

I've got it on this tablet here,

would he have done a painting like this as part of his curriculum here?

-How did it work?

-No, I suspect not.

The curriculum was incredibly formal, and so you'd start off

copying from antique casts of sculpture.

Once you'd achieved proficiency in that,

you'd be allowed into the life school, where you'd draw from the living model,

and the painting schools where you would have to do several things,

including copying old masters.

And so at no point would you have been producing

-original compositions.

-A work of your own?

-Yes, that's right.

-I find that extraordinary.

-I know.

So you'd come here to learn to paint, in Tom Roberts' case,

but you couldn't actually paint any of your own compositions.

-No, that's right.

-In the whole three years?

-Yeah.

So is there anything in here that gives you any clues

that might link it to the Academy in any way?

Well...

I suppose one could point at the Venus de Milo there,

in that that was exactly the sort of classical cast

that students would be expected to draw from

and it's actually singled out in the laws of the schools

as being one of the few so-called mutilated sculptures

that students could submit a drawing of,

as long as they also submitted drawings of the missing parts.

So he would have submitted the arms, essentially, with the Venus de Milo

-in order to gain admission.

-How extraordinary!

He'd draw the Venus de Milo

and then submit drawings of her arms to complete it.

Could the Venus de Milo seen in our painting hint at Roberts' time here?

Sadly, it appears that the painting itself could not have been

a part of the syllabus.

But student artists did create work in their own time

and submit them for the Academy's prestigious annual exhibition.

It's a new line of inquiry.

Is it possible to find out if he ever exhibited it

in any of the Royal Academy exhibitions here?

Certainly, we've got the records, we've got the catalogues,

-I could check now.

-Would you?

-Certainly.

While Mark searches the archives,

I'm on my way to the Courtauld Institute Of Art.

In style and composition,

I think Joe and Rosanna's picture has all the hallmarks

of a late 19th-century painting.

Scientific evidence could help back this up, and rule out a later hand.

So I've arranged for head of conservation

Aviva Burnstock to analyse the picture.

Can she find any forensic clues

that can accurately date when it was painted?

So, what have you been able to deduce about the period of the painting?

It looks like it's painted using a fairly traditional

middle 19th-century painting technique.

You've got a white commercial priming on the stretcher.

-So that's the layer upon which it's painted.

-Yes.

And then he's used things like vermillion and a good range of

earth pigments, some green earth, and some yellow ochre,

some Prussian blue for the drapery of the woman,

and mixed in with yellow ochre for the curtains.

So you're saying this is the traditional recipe

for an artist working in the late 19th century?

Yeah, from the middle of the 19th century,

perhaps in the late 19th century, too, for a conventional painter.

But there's nothing you've found that would suggest that it's later

-than that period, either.

-Well, there are some areas of restoration,

as you would expect of a picture of this age,

and apart from those areas, I have not found in the original paint

anything that would suggest it was a 20th-century painting.

Aviva has found clear indications

that the painting is a mid-to-late 19th-century work.

So, if it is by Tom Roberts,

it would have to be in the early part of his career,

perhaps when he was living in London between 1881 and 1885.

Aviva has also employed infrared photography to look beneath

the surface and she has spotted some surprising details

around the edges of the painting.

So, you can see,

in the infrared image a lot more detail in the background.

Yes, because I've always thought it was hazy and dark up there,

but what have you been able to make out?

You can see a violin on the top shelf here.

-Do you see the violin there?

-Oh, how extraordinary!

And you can see a mirror, or it might even be a canvas,

back to front and then a drawer which is pulled out

with more materials on it.

This type of detail is a characteristic

of a formally-trained 19th-century Academy artist.

And Aviva's infrared analysis of the back of the painting

has also revealed something very promising.

Next to the title Rejected, we can now see "No 1", and

alongside that, what would appear to be several indistinct words.

There is an inscription,

which is, you can see quite clearly in infrared...

-What is it?

-That says...

It's an address, it says 10 James St, Haymarket, SW...

-Mmm ..something.

-A postcode as well. How extraordinary!

So we haven't just got the title of the picture

and the proposed artist's name, Tom Roberts,

but we have an address to go with it.

We must find out about that.

Can we establish a solid link between Tom Roberts and this address?

Fiona is investigating his time as a student in London,

so I need to update her on this new discovery.

You have one new message.

Fiona, hi, this is Philip speaking.

On the back of the picture we've found an address.

Now, this could be a lead and I'm wondering whether you could

possibly look into it.

Hi, Mark. We're looking for two things now,

not only was this painting exhibited here at the Royal Academy, but also,

is there anything you can find that would link the address

10 James St, Haymarket, to Tom Roberts?

Well, we'll see, because the address was something that

-all artists had to submit.

-Right.

-That's encouraging.

-Here we've got the original exhibition catalogues

covering the 1880s.

And if we go to the index for '83.

-So he'd have been in his second year by then.

-That's right.

There's the Rs, can you find it?

Roberts, T.

10 James St, Haymarket!

-There we go.

-Wow!

This is a real breakthrough.

We've found the same address that is written on the back of the picture.

That is our first link between Roberts himself...

..and the painting. And this places him living

at 10 James St in 1883.

That's right. And submitting paintings.

Successfully in this case.

-Was it this painting?

-Do you want to see?

-Can we find out?

-Yeah.

It's called Brought Back.

OK, so it's not that one. Did he exhibit successfully any other year?

Well, luckily enough, we've got another shot at this.

The very next year, 1884...

Here we are.

T Roberts, Basking: A Corner In The Alhambra.

Well, it's definitely not that one, is it?

-No, it's not even close.

-Not remotely!

Gosh, how frustrating.

Brought Back was the first work Roberts had exhibited

at the Royal Academy in 1883.

While Basking: A Corner In The Alhambra was displayed the following year.

Although we've discovered that the address on the back of Joe's picture

is where Roberts lived while studying here,

we can find no record of it being exhibited in the UK.

We've exhausted all the avenues of research here.

Now there's only one place we can go to hunt for new evidence -

Australia.

Tom Roberts returned down under in 1885,

building his career and reputation here until his death in 1931.

Australia's now home to important collections of his early paintings

and archives, which could help us in our investigation.

But first we're on our way to meet Joe and Rosanna on the Sunshine Coast.

It's so wonderful to be in Australia for the first time.

You know, I used to dream about this place as a kid,

I used to dig holes in the garden just hoping to pop up here.

I last came here 20 years ago, when I was a baby, obviously.

-Naturally.

-And how's your Aussie accent?

I love the accent out here, don't you? Sort of g'day, welcome.

-I haven't quite cracked it.

-No, that's terrible.

We're about to meet Joe and Rosanna so definitely don't try it in front of them!

Being here, we really get a sense of the landscape that inspired Roberts

- the incredible light, the sun-drenched colours

and the vast, almost never-ending sense of space.

It was here that Roberts became an artist of great maturity and vision.

If we do manage to prove this picture, we'll be filling in

a missing part of the biography

of one of Australia's most important artists.

I know, but there are so many missing facts at this stage.

I just hope Rosanna and Joe know what they are in for.

As Joe and Rosanna no longer have a permanent home of their own,

we've arranged to meet them at Rosanna's sister's house.

And after updating them about our progress so far,

the chance to talk face-to-face helps us understand

just how difficult things have been.

You've had quite a time of it in recent years.

We have. We definitely have.

So you started up a food business, Joe.

Yeah. But unfortunately, the venture didn't go so well.

We had to sell our house to try and keep our business afloat.

We were selling art to try and keep our business afloat

and then in February, on Valentine's Day,

we had to close the business.

You know, when your house is on the line, you do what you can,

to hope that things can turn around, and I almost lost my health.

I mean, my feet are still numb

from the amount of hours that I worked in that business.

I still see a psychologist once a month to help me.

-My goodness!

-And this woman here has been so strong.

She has been the woman in that picture who has been consoling me.

If this does turn out to be a picture by Tom Roberts,

what would it mean to you?

Well, it means so much

to me in particular, because I feel so responsible for our position.

Oh, honey!

I guess what it's going to mean for us

is that we might have a home again

of our own.

And for us and for our children,

that's going to be truly amazing.

Joe is clearly broken

by what he's been through.

The pressure, my goodness.

I can't imagine what it would be like coming back and telling them

that this picture is NOT by Tom Roberts.

I can't even bear to think about that.

I just fervently hope,

almost more than any programme we've done...

..that we come back with good news.

We just have to.

With a fresh sense of purpose,

we're leaving the Sunshine Coast in search of new leads.

First, we've all come to Melbourne to search for any evidence

that could prove the painting is a genuine work by Tom Roberts.

It was here that Roberts lived and worked for long periods

after he returned from London in 1885.

He led a new movement, now dubbed Australian Impressionism,

exhibiting works alongside acclaimed contemporaries, such as Arthur Streeton.

Melbourne is home to some of the country's most important

art collections,

including some rare examples of Roberts' early paintings.

Rosanna and I are on our way to the National Gallery of Victoria.

There's one particular work here

that Roberts composed in the same period

we think our painting was made, and I'm hoping it might display

some very similar stylistic traits to Joe and Rosanna's picture.

It's a portrait of one Mrs Abrahams, the wife of a friend of Tom Roberts,

painted here in Melbourne in 1888.

Every artist has their own way of approaching a composition,

their own way of telling a story and what we're seeing here is

a really specific way of doing so,

using all sorts of objects, hints and props.

This woman is a fashionable lady,

what Roberts wanted to do was show, with the plants, with the reeds,

on the table next to her,

look at that beautiful piece of blossom and then an Oriental pot

next to it, and the chair upon which she's sitting, that wicker chair -

all references to the subject's sophistication and cultivation.

You can begin to work out what type of woman she was on the basis of

everything that's around her.

And I think we find that in your picture.

You have the central figure - in your case it's two figures -

and around and about, these satellite objects

that tell you more,

that give you hints, give you clues about what's going on.

Bottom right-hand corner, three cups on the table,

-what do you think those are about?

-Coming to tea.

Three people. A reference to the friendship of the subject,

the subject's husband and the artist -

it's possibly given as a wedding present.

Now, in your picture, it's a bunch of paints, it's brushes,

its references to the artist at work,

-put almost exactly in the same place.

-The same spot.

Both these pictures are stage sets

in which the props are telling you a story.

They're different stories, but the means,

the manner by which the story is told is the same.

What also strikes me is the invisible line that Roberts has used

to help order the scene.

This quirk is also visible in our painting,

an artistic device to help the viewer navigate

a picture rich in detail.

So, do you get a sense that your picture could be by the same hand?

I do. The structure seems to be similar, and that technique,

of all those little curiosities. Once you see this work,

you can see that storytelling technique.

-VOICEOVER:

-This is really encouraging.

There are significant stylistic similarities

between this genuine work and Joe and Rosanna's painting.

While Philip continues his enquiries,

Joe and I are following up a new lead.

Our research has revealed that while Tom Roberts was living

in London, he continued to be a member of an Australian art society

and sent several paintings back to Melbourne to be exhibited.

Could it be that the back of Joe's painting was marked up with a title

and address for it to be sent back here to Melbourne for an exhibition?

The State Library of Victoria holds records of the exhibitions

that were held in Melbourne between 1881 and 1885 -

the years Roberts was in London -

so Joe and I are taking a closer look.

This is interesting, "special notice to artist", so these are the rules.

At the back of each frame must be written the name of the artist

and the number.

Do you remember the number on the back of your picture?

-Number one.

-Yeah.

Could this explain why "No 1" was spotted

under the infrared, written on the back?

The records detail each artist who was accepted for exhibition by name

and title of work.

No, sculpture, so he's not in this one.

It's a painstaking search.

Might later catalogues contain any reference to Tom Roberts

or Joe and Rosanna's picture?

-Robertson.

-Yeah.

-Close.

-Frustratingly, yeah, but not Roberts.

OK, that's the end. Right, let's look at the next one.

-There it is.

-Tom Roberts.

-OK.

-Yeah.

-This is exciting.

Now we need the title.

Chillington Churchyard.

Spanish Water-Carrier.

The Thames by Westminster.

-So this was painted in London and sent back here for exhibition.

-Yeah.

-And that's it.

-Nothing else.

-How frustrating.

-I can't believe that.

I was so hoping that we would find it here.

It's such a mystery.

Why is there a number, and yet it's not listed here?

He's obviously not brought it back to Australia.

With no record of a Tom Roberts painting called No 1 Rejected

in the archives of the State Library of Victoria,

we're faced with two options.

Either the painting remained undiscovered in the UK

for over 100 years or it's not quite what it appears to be,

as the expert who first examined it seemed to suspect.

Could it be a clever fake?

To investigate the murky side of the market for Tom Roberts' work,

Rosanna and I are visiting the University of Melbourne.

We've arranged to meet Professor Robyn Sloggett,

an art conservator who has helped to identify several fake Tom Roberts

paintings sold in Australia.

Robyn, I'm aware that, as a result of your studies,

you're known as the Queen Of Fakery out here.

Thank you.

So, in the case of Tom Roberts, can you give me sort of some sense of...

..the scale, the type of fakery that's out there?

Interesting artist, important artist, worth a lot of money,

so, clearly, forgers are going to be interested in Tom Roberts.

Did you know that you had entered such shark-infested waters?

Finding it hard to breathe right now.

We knew of course that Tom Roberts is a reputable

and well-loved Australian artist,

and it would make sense that, therefore, the forgers would take on his name.

But that's in hindsight,

it's very sensible to see and hear that now,

and not when we were making the decision to buy.

I know that you've got two here from your sort of chamber of horrors.

Let's look at this one. This looks to me

like a reasonably competent picture, very much in the Roberts style.

And that's what it's been created for -

to look like a reasonably competent picture,

not only in the Roberts style, but by Roberts.

I can't help noticing those little flat-edged,

impasto-filled brushstrokes in the sky.

It looks a bit like yours.

This is, this is terrifying.

The frightening thing is how clinical it is and how

malicious some people might have been along the way.

That's what's frightening.

This one is made by someone who's studied the techniques

of Tom Roberts, and then tried to make a work

that someone would pay money for, as if it were a Tom Roberts.

Let's look at the back.

Actually, yeah, it's a bit of a giveaway, isn't it?

What's interesting is this label which has clearly been

added on afterwards, so it screams tricked-up at you.

Although the brushstrokes look seductive,

Robyn confidently identified this as a later fake.

But we know from our own scientific tests at the Courtauld Institute

that our painting seems to be from the late 19th century.

But what about this picture?

It also seems to be from the right period.

But it, too, is a fake.

I mean, it looks quite old.

Let's have a look at the back.

I mean, look, this is a 1900 stretcher.

And written on the back of this picture,

we also see the name Tom Roberts.

So this is an example of one that's been repurposed.

Sorry, "re-purposed"? I learned a new word here today.

Started off as something else and now it's been made into

a Tom Roberts for the purposes of selling it.

Everything about it is of the period, so if you do tests on this,

you're not going to find something that you couldn't expect to find

in an 1890 painting.

Goodness gracious me!

Maybe the expert who viewed Joe and Rosanna's painting

believed it, too, had been repurposed -

a nightmare scenario that we're keen to rule out.

How would you feel for your husband, if it's a fake?

I'd be devastated,

because I know he would be devastated,

and no-one wants that news.

This case is now at a crucial stage for everyone involved.

So we've come to Sydney, where there are some final leads

we need to investigate if we're to have any chance

of overturning the original verdict that the painting is not genuine.

I hope we're going to find here the evidence that will authenticate this

painting for Joe, cos having spent all this time with him,

I worry about his emotional fragility.

Everything is riding on this picture for him and I can't bear to think

what will happen if we don't prove it's genuine.

Yeah, I felt that very strongly with Rosanna as well,

but what we're lacking is any physical, solid evidence,

anything on paper that testifies to the existence of this.

I just really hope somewhere here we can lay our hands on it because,

without it, we're not going to be able to authenticate this picture.

In Australia's largest city,

we found a unique personal connection to Tom Roberts,

which we hope can help provide the new evidence we need.

Joe and I are taking the painting to a direct descendant of Tom Roberts -

his great-granddaughter.

Lisa Roberts is an accomplished artist herself,

and a keen student of her great-grandfather's work.

And here it is.

-Wow.

-What do you think?

-It is a tense moment.

-It's beautiful.

Good! I was wondering what you were going to say!

Oh, Joe...

It's so moving.

As a family member, you are the closest we can get to Tom Roberts.

Does this speak to you of the man?

It certainly does.

It screams Tom Roberts.

-Does it? Why?

-It does!

-Why does it scream that to you?

On many levels - the subject, the story, the feelings.

But also, I've just noticed these brushstrokes,

these wide strokes that you get when you use a flat chisel-shaped brush,

which Tom has been noted to be using before he came to London.

And these are the strokes that he then further developed

in his later times in Australia,

and I can see the beginnings of that in this picture,

so these are the really familiar marks to me.

VOICEOVER: This is encouraging. Lisa is convinced

the painting is a genuine work by her great-grandfather.

And she also has a fascinating theory about the unhappy artist in the picture.

And this is clearly Tom.

You think this is a self-portrait?

I do.

That's so clearly his body.

That hand, I've seen in that position in photographs.

He had big hands.

And they're his ears and his long legs.

-And the face?

-The face...

-Yes.

-So, if this IS a self-portrait,

this is a completely new theory for us.

So, if true, hugely important.

Academically, in terms of contributing to the knowledge

about his work - his first self-portrait.

I mean, who would have ever thought that it could have been that.

Lisa also believes she can shed some light on what motivated Tom Roberts

to paint this mournful, emotional scene.

His mother had remarried a man who Tom didn't approve of,

and so, they...they were estranged for a period of time.

So he went to London and he got into the Royal Academy,

so he was proud and he wanted to tell his mother,

so he wrote her a letter.

And obviously in those days it had to come by ship.

It never reached her.

She'd died in the meantime.

So, to me, this painting could be maybe representing "Mother",

the love of his mother that he...

..probably wanted, particularly at this time.

These are universal themes.

Maybe that's why this painting resonates so much with me

because that's me all over.

Lisa's belief that this is a self-portrait

has provided the investigation with a tantalising new theory.

And in Sydney's State Library,

I've secured a rare opportunity to look through Tom Roberts' original sketchbooks.

They contain the artist's preparatory drawings.

The process of moving from sketch to finished painting

was a technique Roberts was taught at the Royal Academy.

Can I find any sketches here

which could directly relate to Joe and Rosanna's picture?

These are incredible things, you know.

It is like an X-ray into Tom Roberts's mind.

You can see the way he's thinking, the way he's developing ideas.

You can just imagine that girl looking away in a painting,

possibly a street scene.

One of the things that really struck me about your painting

when I first saw it was that gesture of the hand on the face,

like a philosopher, a thinker.

Here is a man leaning on his hand.

Now, OK, it's from another direction, but it gets better.

-Here...it's now stronger, it's more graphic.

-Mmm.

We're getting warmer.

Two sketches of a man with head in hand,

just like the figure in our picture.

There's one here...

that I'd like you to look at in particular.

-Does that give you...

-Oh, my goodness!

Not bad, eh?

Here we have a drawing of a man and a woman consoling each other,

just like the central characters in Joe and Rosanna's picture.

The point is, we're looking into the head of Tom Roberts here.

He's up to something, and what he's up to...

..can be found deeper into the book.

And here...

Oh, my goodness!

Oh, wow!

And now, the most compelling evidence of all,

a simple sketch of an artist in his studio

with the edge of a painting in the corner.

It's emotionally slightly different.

I mean, this guy is tearing his hair out,

he's having a sort of artistic nervous breakdown.

-Yeah, there's despair.

-But the point is,

look at the composition, look at the whole concept,

an artist, picture, you know, deep agitation, in need of consolation.

-He's thought about that, hasn't he? He's done that earlier.

-Yes, yes.

And look here. The curiosities on the wall behind.

Well, of course, that's a really good point.

These are props around him, very much like your picture.

What you've got here shows he was heading in the direction of your painting.

I can't even believe that this exists and that you could find it.

It is a miracle.

They have come to us at a wonderful moment.

I mean, we didn't have provenance.

There's a great gap.

We needed something.

And I think we're looking at an astonishingly transformative piece of evidence.

Oh, wow!

That's extraordinary!

These sketches, made by Roberts

while he was studying at the Royal Academy, appear to connect

the artist directly to Joe and Rosanna's painting.

Could this be the final evidence that we need?

We've arranged to meet Joe and Rosanna at a Sydney restaurant.

Our investigation is almost complete...

..but with Joe now up to speed on the latest discoveries,

emotions are running high.

We wanted to have this moment together to celebrate

what is a fantastic day,

incredible progress.

The only thing I would say...

I hate even saying this, is that Philip and I over the years,

making this series, we have been here before,

where all the evidence has been so strong,

and we have made such good progress,

but then the painting has not been authenticated.

You know,

all the news that we're discovering

is moving forward.

To hear all of this

gives us so much hope.

Oh, Joe!

Well, we have done as much as we can.

So, what is now crucial

is that we marshal all the evidence - stylistic, forensic,

add the drawings, and put that case to the scholars.

Well, you have our blessing.

I've come to the Art Gallery of New South Wales to present

the painting to one of the leading authorities on Tom Roberts.

Mary Eagle is a former curator and a scholar of his work.

The leading auction houses in Australia now look to her judgment

to determine if a work is genuine.

Before she assesses our case,

what are her first impressions of Joe's painting?

I like the still life painting down in the lower right.

-So, down here?

-That is exquisite.

The painting of the lamp, there, is very beautiful.

It is really like the later work of Tom Roberts.

I also like, particularly like, the composition.

I dislike the painting of the figure.

I think he dominates the scene, in an almost troubling way,

at least to me it's troubling because I think,

not well-painted.

Tom Roberts became a very, very good painter of faces,

but this face is slabby.

It looks like moulded cottage cheese rather than...

-Oh, gosh. Oh, Mary!

-Well, it does!

We showed this to Tom Roberts' great-granddaughter,

and she felt very strongly that it's a self-portrait,

that this is actually Tom Roberts himself.

It certainly looks like him.

Well, it strikes me as being 80% of young men at his time, at that time.

I'd be disappointed if Tom painted himself.

It would make this a confessional painting,

and I don't think he was so self-indulgent.

Does it trouble you that we have over a century

of missing provenance when it comes to this painting?

We have not managed to establish a paper trail

that goes from our current owner back to the brush of Tom Roberts?

-There's just a big gap there.

-It's very disappointing because...

..let's say someone has faked it, let's say they used his sketchbooks,

used early paintings, knew exactly what women wore at that time.

The scientific analysis is very useful.

Provenance would be...

..it'd really cement the picture, wouldn't it?

And we don't have that provenance to give you, I'm afraid.

Well, I'm sorry about that. What a pity.

Well, I've left Mary with the painting and our file of evidence,

and she's going to consider it before she gives us her verdict.

There are some things about the painting she clearly liked

very much, others that she really didn't,

and I was a bit taken aback by how much she didn't like the figure,

the artist himself, particularly the face.

I mean, it's called Rejected, and I can only hope...

..that she doesn't reject it and she delivers the verdict

that Joe so desperately wants.

Over the course of this investigation,

we've found some compelling new evidence.

Scientific tests confirming the painting is a late 19th-century work.

An address on the back of the painting matching a place

where Tom Roberts lived in London.

Convincing stylistic similarities to genuine works.

We've also compared the signature on Joe's painting to genuine examples,

and found several that bear striking similarities.

And most convincing of all, Tom Roberts' sketchbooks,

which we believe show his preparatory drawings

for Joe and Rosanna's picture.

One day later, we receive Mary Eagle's judgment.

We need to deliver the verdict to Joe and Rosanna.

It's a decision which could change their lives,

so we've all arranged to meet at Sydney's State Library.

I only wish that Joe and Rosanna's picture had not been turned down.

It's so much more difficult in the art world to reverse an opinion

that's already been stated.

Do I think we've done enough research?

Have we made the case on paper?

Yes, I think we have.

Will it be enough, though, to reverse that view,

to make it authentic?

Well, we're about to find out.

I'm feeling very apprehensive at this moment.

It's difficult to contain all of those emotions,

but I think we're ready to find out,

we are at a point in our life now that, you know, we need to move on,

and really discover what this painting is all about.

OK, Joe and Rosanna, we've now got to the endgame,

and, in this envelope here, we have the answer.

-Are you ready for it?

-We're ready.

-Yes.

-Mm-hmm.

OK.

"On looking at the painting itself...

"..there is enough evidence, particularly...

SHE CHOKES

"..particularly the composition and the painting of the still life..."

Stop it, you're getting me going!

"..to support the conclusion that it IS by Tom Roberts!"

Well done! Oh, my goodness, I'm so thrilled for you.

I can read the rest of it now.

"It fills a gap in what we know about Tom Roberts,

"and I think it might be the first of his paintings

"that show signs of his greatest traits,

"the expression of feeling - that trait may be overstated here -

"but he was to achieve some of Australia's greatest paintings."

Oh, Joe, look at you!

Say something, Joe.

I mean, that's just amazing to hear that.

I mean, I've wanted to hear that for so long.

He has felt responsible and he has felt that he was the one

who put us in this situation, so this, for him,

is just about realising that he has done good.

-He's done good.

-It's redemption. It's redemption, Joe.

I wanted to contain, I've said it's time

for me to put all those feelings into a box and put it away.

And I think I can do that now.

-This will help you do that.

-Yes, let us do that.

So, this brings up the subject of the valuation.

What are we dealing with here?

Well, a pivotal, early work

by a man who went on to become the father of Australian Impressionism.

There are Australian collectors who would love this,

and also museums.

We must be talking about a price in excess of £200,000.

That's just amazing.

That is wonderful.

-And this is yours.

-Thank you.

I'm so relieved!

My overwhelming feeling at the end of all that,

having come to the other side of the world, is relief!

Relief for Joe, relief that this painting he believed in for so long

has come good. And as I read that verdict out to him,

I could almost see him stand taller and his back grow straighter.

And he is now proud, proud of what he's achieved.

Which is a great result. And there is another aspect to all of this.

It's only by spending time here in Australia that I realise

how important Tom Roberts is to the history of art out here,

and in a sense we've put back a missing building block,

or put it another way, a painting called Rejected is now accepted.

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