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Episode four: A Venetian View.

In this episode Philip and Fiona investigate a highly desirable Venetian view. It was inherited by owner Nick Hopkinson from his great grandfather Meyer Spielman. Nick grew up with the painting and has always loved it, but there’s a mystery about it that he would love to solve: on the back of the painting there are two labels from the Royal Academy - one names the artist as Marieschi, and the other as Guardi. Nick has long wondered who is the hand behind one of his most treasured belongings, and contacted the Fake or Fortune? team for help.

Francesco Guardi and Michele Marieschi are both known for their paintings of Venetian views and were contemporaries in the 18th century of the most famous view painter of them all - Canaletto. But there’s a big difference in value between them: if Nick’s painting is a Marieschi it could be worth half a million pounds, if it’s a Guardi it could be worth up to 10 million pounds.

With such high stakes, Philip and Fiona get to work to solve this mystery. On a trip to Venice they learn that when it comes to attribution, confusion reigned even in the 18th century. There was such a huge demand for Venetian views that artists churned them out, often from workshops with apprentices or other artists filling in details such as the figures, and they rarely signed their paintings.

At the Art Academy Archives in Venice, Fiona and Nick look at a document that details a sort of 18th century version of Fake Or Fortune? A committee is trying to establish who painted a picture, with some familiar names being debated: Canaletto is mentioned, as is Marieschi and Guardi. At that time, Guardi was still alive and so was brought in to verify the identity of the painting. Centuries later, Fiona and Philip will have to follow the clues in the painting itself to solve this mystery.

Back in London the team get to work. Philip compares Nick’s painting to other known works by both Marieschi and Guardi and decides that stylistically, it’s far closer to Marieschi than Guardi. On the provenance trail, Fiona and Nick head to the Royal Academy to see if they can find out any more about the labels on the back of the painting. There, they make a shocking discovery that puts an even bigger question mark over Guardi’s name. It’s the first of several family stories that Nick discovers aren’t quite as he thought.

With Guardi in doubt, the team turn their attention to Marieschi. The view in the picture is one that Marieschi often depicted which is encouraging, but it does also raise the possibility that this is a copy. The demand for these highly desirable Venetian views was so high that in the late 18th and 19th century the market was flooded with fakes and copies. A factory was even opened in London churning out what were known as ‘Canaletti’. We are entering murky waters and there’s a worrying prospect that Nick’s picture could turn out to be neither a Guardi nor a Marieschi but a fake.

Detailed forensic investigations into the painting could help to make the case - are the paints from the 18th or 19th century? Are the technical details of the painting in keeping with known works by Marieschi? In a Fake Or Fortune? first, the picture is analysed using a revolutionary new piece of imaging technology called Artmyn. A scanner takes 20,000 photographs, mapping the surface of the picture and revealing in minute detail how the paint has been applied. Such insights could be crucial in distinguishing a genuine Marieschi from a copy.

The provenance trail is frustratingly short, Fiona traces it back to 1906, but Marieschi died in 1744 - so that leaves over a century and a half of unknown provenance. There is one more lead to follow up: an intriguing seal on the back of the painting that says 'Firenze’. Could this place the painting in Italy in the 18th and 19th century and rule out the possibility of it being an English fake?

The team gathers together all their research and present it to the authority in this field, Charles Beddington, who must decide if this is the work of an Italian master or another hand. After all the years of uncertainty and speculation, the fate of Nick’s treasured picture is about to be revealed.

Publicity contact: CM9