Journalist and art dealer with a necessary sideline in art history. They met on Antiques Roadshow.
Sometimes there are happy stories, where the genuine folks get a letter which ends “and for these reasons I am happy to declare this a genuine work by Famous Artist.”
Sometimes there are the landed gentry “Oh yes, we’ve had this in the upstairs third bedroom on the left since the 1930s, and we just wanted to know if it’s worth hanging in the main grand hall” who bring the painting in their Bentley and follow it back and forth across the Atlantic because why not they can go shopping in Tiffanies while they’re in New York, who get told “no, we’re pretty sure this was painted by uncle Berty in 1925”, and you cheer a little for that as well.
When it came on, my dad was in South Korea with his reserves unit… so he missed it (but I think we taped it, our first time doing so? I can’t remember if I’m mis-remembering that or not). We got t-shirts with radar’s teddy bear on it, and I still have that put away somewhere… it was one of those baseball style t-shirts…
Honestly, I really felt for the woman whose father found the Winslow Homer watercolor when the family who lost it jumped in, S01 EP02. Of course it’s theirs, having been stolen at some point, but that excuse for taking it back (“Our home is in need of repair, and we need this painting to pay for restorations”) was a crock of shit. Philip Mould literally bumped into him at an art gallery function.
The one I really cheered for was S01 EP4, where the Rembrandt school painting was traced back to the German guy whose ancestor had likely stolen it through misappropriation, he was totally on board with returning it to the rightful owner (even if it hasn’t been yet) because he recognized that it wasn’t his. One of the better stories of reparations in the art world that I’ve heard.
I also have to say I really enjoyed the Vuillard episode with the oval paintings of the restaurant scene. Those were gorgeous.
Upthread, I believe it was @1000YearBan and @anon52120741 who put me onto it.
“Cunk on Earth”.
I’m five minutes into the first episode and found it so funny I had to take a breather to post here.
It’s a great thing indeed that she’s here on this earth, and also this planet.
I too missed some of it because I was laughing so hard. They did a great job too with finding so many eggspurts who could keep a straight face during her antics.
No, it was just great. I meant it as a “Just look at it!” reaction. I especially liked how they managed to flip things around on the usual formula, while still keeping the formula intact.
Yeah, the formula reversal was a breath of fresh air! In fact, the episode flew by for me, whereas I’ve always felt like the others had bits where they dragged.
