Britain's Lost Masterpieces
Britain's Lost Masterpieces is a factual BBC Four documentary television series that aims to uncover overlooked art treasures in British public collections, in conjunction with Art UK. It is presented by Bendor Grosvenor, along with art historian Jacky Klein and social historian Emma Dabiri. The series also features the art restoration work of Simon Gillespie. In North American syndication, the series is called The Art Detectives.
Development
Each episode begins with Grosvenor locating a prospective masterpiece in the digitized collection of Art UK. The restoration work of Gillespie's shop is key to a successful attribution.Grosvenor left his position working at Philip Mould's gallery in 2014, but continued to work on Mould and Fiona Bruce's programme Fake or Fortune? In 2016, Grosvenor took his idea for a programme looking at lost masterpieces in public collections to Tern TV, a production company based in Glasgow. Tern TV pitched it to BBC4 and then to the head of arts commissioning at BBC, Mark Bell. When the two co-presenters of Fake or Fortune? found out, they ended Grosvenor's involvement with Fake or Fortune? and complained to Bell the idea was too similar to their own show. Bell, however, greenlighted the programme, though its name was changed from the intended The Art Detectives to its current title. In the US, Mould's 1995 book Sleuth is called The Art Detective: Fakes, Frauds and Finds and the Search for Lost Treasures and Grosvenor's show is called The Art Detectives. Grosvenor maintains that the two series differ in that while Fake or Fortune? looks at privately owned art his programme focuses on paintings in public galleries.
The COVID-19 pandemic delayed production of Series 5, planned for Spring 2020. Production resumed in October 2020, only for Grosvenor to catch COVID-19, further delaying the third episode of the fifth series. Grosvenor later confirmed that this episode, not aired until 2022, would be the final episode, and that the fifth series would be the last.