‘Fake’ Gauguin sketch is £200,000 original
A GAUGUIN sketch dismissed as a copy is actually worth £200,000, according to new analysis.
The small charcoal and pencil drawing by late 19thcentury French artist Paul Gauguin was not thought to be authentic when the owner took it to a leading auction house in 2012.
The family heirloom was inherited from her grandfather Dr Alfred Scharf, an art historian who fled Nazi Germany in the Thirties to live in Britain.
The BBC’S Fake Or Fortune? team followed clues in the labels on the back of the picture which showed it was once owned by Sir Winston Churchill’s cousin.
It had originally been part of a collection owned by Gauguin’s close friend Francisco “Paco” Durrio, who received a book of sketches from the artist before he abandoned Paris for a life in Tahiti.
Detailed analysis of the sketch revealed it to be an original work. The drawing, Crouching Woman, appears to depict one of the characters in Gauguin’s most famous work, When Will You Marry? The Tahitian masterpiece sold for $200m (£151m) in 2015, making it one of the most expensive paintings in the world.
Philip Mould, the presenter of the BBC One show, estimated that the sketch could now be worth more than £200,000. He said: “This is a particularly wonderful find and marvellous for the owner, who could so easily have badly lost out.”
Co-presenter Fiona Bruce said it was a “precious discovery”, adding: “I’m so thrilled we were able to prove it right.”