BBC’S Fake or Fortune TV show ‘devalued’ artwork
‘It is crazy that they thought it was probably a collaborative piece’
THE BBC’S Fake or Fortune show has been accused of devaluing an artwork by a celebrated British modernist by questioning its origins for “drama and tension”.
The mural was painted by Ben Nicholson onto his friends’ bedroom wall as a thank you gift for staying at their home in 1947.
The current owners of the property in Surrey had the mural salvaged by art conservationists, who removed the plaster it was on in one piece.
The mural went on to be featured on Fake or Fortune in 2022, the BBC programme hosted by Fiona Bruce that investigates the provenance of notable works of art. The mural prompted debate on the show before experts concluded it was “probably” an informal collaborative piece between the artist and the homeowner, Fred Staite Murray.
At the end of the episode Philip Mould, the art expert, said it could be worth between £50,000 to £100,000.
Lay’s Auctioneers, of Penzance, Cornwall, which is tasked with selling it, say the mural is a Nicholson original completed only in his hand. However, it said it had given the 30-by-24in mural an estimate of £80,000 because of the public debate over it.
Comparable Nicholson works have sold for £200,000, leading to suggestions the BBC may have “devalued” the mural by casting doubt on it for the show.
Mimi Connell-lay, of Lay’s Auctioneers, said: “There is no doubt it is a genuine piece by Nicholson. The whole premise of the programme is to ask the question ‘is it or isn’t it’ and to create drama and tension. With the backstory and the provenance there is no doubt to people in the art world that it is a Ben Nicholson work.
“But there was one specialist who said that. It is crazy when you look at the dossier of evidence the experts on the show produced that they came to the conclusion that it probably was a collaborative piece.
“One of the specialists on the show stated that they didn’t think Nicholson would have drawn a mandolin that is in the mural in that way, but that is his subjective opinion.”
The auctioneer said Nicholson (18941982) stayed at the Surrey home of Fred and Madge Staite Murray in 1947 while he was staging an exhibition in London.
It owned 10 of the St Ives artist’s paintings and he had asked if he could borrow five of them for the display, which it agreed to.
Auctioneers said they believed he created the mural to say thank you. The Staite Murrays later preserved the work behind a Perspex screen at Red Stream Cottage in Bramley.
Art luminaries visited to see the work, which features Nicholson’s trademark lettering, scattered dots and geometric shapes.
After Mr and Mrs Murray died in 1972 and 1991 respectively, their neighbours acted as unofficial custodians for the mural. Ms Connell-lay said: “Madge died in 1991. Her close neighbours of over 25 years, the Metcalfs, remembered her fondly. They heard her many stories about famous artists and were shown the Nicholson mural.
“After Madge’s death, they acted as custodians, ensuring new owners of Red Stream Cottage [Ian and Julie Herrington] were informed of the remarkable legacy within their walls.”
She added that some of the Nicholson specialists felt the work was a collaboration between him and Fred Murray, but “the programme’s researchers made an emphatic case for the mural being by the single hand of Nicholson, a gift for his good friends the Staite Murrays. He was not an artist who was known for collaborating with others.”
The BBC said the experts on Fake or Fortune “form their own independent view” on the potential value of art. A BBC spokesman said: “The BBC does not get involved in any commercial sales activity around the artworks that feature in the series.
“The valuation given in the episode was an estimate of the potential price the artwork might achieve based on the information available at the time to the experts examining the piece.
“The experts in each programme always form their own independent view, drawing on their knowledge and expertise.”