Race Against Time To Prove Sketchbooks Are By Toulouse-Lautrec | Fake Or Fortune?

The owner of two sketchbooks, unearthed in a shed in France, asks presenter Fiona Bruce and international art dealer Philip Mould for help in proving that they are indeed the work of a young Henri Toulouse-Lautrec.
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[@bigjohnknew]

For those wanting an update, a number of these sketches were sold at Christie’s recently and the catalogue notes that they had been accepted by the official Toulouse-Lautrec committee.

[@finasullivan2311]

Greeting from the USA!!! This series is just brilliant!!! Why hasn’t Netflix , Hulu, or another giant snapped you up !! I accidentally came across this series on utube…. The best series I’ve seen in ions!! Get rid of the trash and bring this on the big screen!!!!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@pinkerbot]

You do realise this is a BBC show?

[@finasullivan2311]

@@pinkerbot I do and I’m jealous!!

[@pinkerbot]

@@finasullivan2311 :)

[@joseffinat966]

Leg het eerst met mijn Schepper voor hij bepaalt de tijd ( want hij is de Glorie van alles GENIUS- Genesis,mijn beste vriend ❤

[@shawnross8582]

Some of the PBS channels carry it. That's how I first came across the show.

[@TinaKrieg]

found this show by accident. I'm hooked. I love the stories behind the paintings. Fascinating how far you can go back.

[@celtoloco788]

yeah i often dont even like the art, i like the stories behind it. What a job they have!

[@orionfoote2890]

I don’t know what the update on this is, but they clearly weren’t too keen on admitting that they might well have been wrong the last time they considered these sketchbooks. A cracking episode and it was nice to watch it again.

[@WJACOTT]

might? they are clearly wrong, hate this so called "experts" talentless folks.

[@Stable_Delerium]

I knew what the outcome was going to be as soon as I heard the phrase French Committee. I knew ego and pride would get in the way of authentication. They don’t want to authenticate anything they don’t already have control over.

[@todwest]

I agree with Philip that to move from "non" to "peut-être" is a huge step in the right direction. Having watched this series, these institutions are ossified and loath to admit error. Why open this door if you are intent on saying "non" again? I'll be shocked if this doesn't end happily now.

[@annabellelee4535]

They have not been declared authentic by the full committee and it's been 6 years.

[@celtoloco788]

i wouldnt even take art to these hacks. They are just in it for their own reputations, they dont actually care about the art

[@annabellelee4535]

@@celtoloco788 Actually they care enough to keep forgeries out of the legitimate world art market. I appreciate that.

[@todwest]

@@celtoloco788 Yet they are the gatekeepers, unfortunately. No choice.

[@ivorytower99]

Excellent use of the word, "Ossified"!

[@lorrainer4839]

It would have been nice to have an addendum at the end to show how the next meeting of the committee went. I'm sure it could have been added in post just a line before the credits.

[@maryhirsch7170]

A Lautrec portfolio was the first gift my husband gave me, because he knew I was an admirer of his work. This is like revisiting that time. Thank you!

[@Schlei602]

Sure Toulouse-Lautrec! I am looking at his work, since I was young. It's his hand, he didn't need to be careful while drawing, his hand flew over the paper in absolute security.

[@shirleywilkersonl1434]

I am madly in love with Philip something about the way he Carrie’s himself I forget to look at the beautiful art in the room his wife is extremely lucky woman😊

[@erinnauta1405]

Now THIS is exciting history, art, AND sleuthing! What a delight!

[@ivorytower99]

Philip recently wrote, 'Series 11 of Fake or Fortune has finished production for this autumn'. Brill!

[@Burbankelly]

Ugh! You left me hanging! Since this was 6 months ago, does anyone know the outcome?

[@katharinatrub1338]

Wow! One more fascinating episode! Thank you! I was stunned by hearing that the commit said : "...any evidence that could meet the eye would be more important than any research you can offer" !

[@MMm-le7jj]

Thanks for downloading this incredibly interesting series …

[@valerielester7210]

I love your show, its so much fun to follow the detective work. There is nothing but garbage on television, even the commercials are horrid. Thank you for putting real entertainment on you tube and adding some enchantment to our lives.

[@grokeffer6226]

I think that the sketches are from Toulouse-Lautrec. There are too many similarities to other sketchbooks by him to dismiss these as fakes. I'm guessing that this sketchbook was lost or misplaced, and that is why it wasn't with his other sketchbooks.

[@annabellelee4535]

In a potting shed? Really? No, they're fake.

[@melanies.6030]

​@Annabelle Lee The only role the shed plays in this was that it was just where Alain's grandmother stored her stuff. The real clue is that she had lived and worked as a cleaning lady on the same street in Paris as the Lautrec home and Princeteau studio.

[@kevinhaid6211]

The wording in the last letter from the committee screams "we jumped the gun and made a bad call, we're gonna stall now so that we don't look bad as experts...the main governing-body experts of lautrecs work, no less". The people on this "committee" are the exact same types that made Eric Hebborn's life so simple lol. One thing's for sure when it comes to the "experts" of the art world...most aren't very expert, quite dense and biased in their own calls.

[@kevinhaid6211]

Heck, the committee on Warhol closed up shop on authentication...because they couldn't tell the fakes from the real Warhols anymore, nor could they afford (they could lol) the ensuing legal fights that came as a result of their equally bad calls.

[@carlotta4th]

To be fair--it's hundreds of pieces and submitted last minute. They can't just accept that it's his writing and therefore it's all legit (someone might slip fakes in that way). They have to analyze each piece. I think saying "we need more time, submit it again" is a good result.

[@shaunamalone5165]

I need an update on this episode. It was a good, one, french, french and french. I feel like I would come across his work all the time and it would alway capture my eye, even though it wasn't my fav style of art. It's nice to put an artist to the art. 😊

[@BrendaAnderson]

9 of the sketches sold at Christies in 2022 (the committee approved them)

[@pimpozza]

This series teaches us so much about the history of art and I just love the stories behind each painting.. 🎨👍

[@CallieMasters5000]

If they're not real, they're very good fakes. That whole story about grandma having them in the shed doesn't help at all, really. The fact that she lived in Paris in the same neighborhood in the 1920s is probably the only useful info she adds to the mystery.

[@Songbirdstress]

I don't see how they could be fakes. The person would need hitherto unknown info on Lautrec.

[@annabellelee4535]

@@Songbirdstress Or just sketch in the same style as a young and untrained HTL.

[@annabellelee4535]

They must have been declared fake by the authenticators since it's been over 3 years and there isn't a peep about them.

[@queenbee4427]

PLEASE what was the later findings after the show??? Does anyone know?

[@BrendaAnderson]

9 of the sketches sold at Christie’s in 2022 (the committee approved them).

[@JSGilbert]

This was 4 years ago and I can’t find word one on whether the committee ever came to an agreement.

[@toddmurphy523]

Spoiler alert.....😳

[@benediktmorak4409]

does ANY committee EVER come to an agreement?

[@helenl44]

I can't find the name or location of such a committee in order to see whether Alain presented the sketchbooks again. Did you find it?

[@benediktmorak4409]

@@helenl44 because of - geo blocking - but also for - copyright reasons - i can not watch the original on BBC. it might be there. I only can watch youtube. AND indeed, it is NOT anywhere.

[@annabellelee4535]

It was filmed in 2017 and aired in March of 2018. Obviously it didn't make it to or through the committee.

[@rosalindchu7588]

As a Toulouse admirer/fan, this has been the best story put out by Perspective…thank you. I believe with all my heart from my own love for his art and with yr precise researches that those sketches and drawings are true work of HTL. How Alan’s mother got hold of these sketches is a bit dubious though. Regardless, the committee must relent with their decision one day.

[@mellie4174]

Grandmother!...

[@celtoloco788]

'perspective' didnt put this out, The BBC did.. 15 yrs ago. This is an old tv show

[@englishrose4388]

Would love to hear the final outcome.

[@RonRossi-j6l]

Lautrec is a favorite in all he can and did do. This was a search we needed to take. Thank you.

[@paulzeman3945]

Myself and a friend are positively hooked on your series. South Africa ❤😊

[@patriciahoustonpaintings]

Wow!! What a fascinating case. Thank you.

[@rollingstone6699]

I so enjoy this show, it's exciting and fun to be part of fabulous outcomes.

[@ticouna]

I have been following the painting courses and now this I am so hooked! painting, detective work, history it is all there. I love it so much. Do you think you can do such work in Québec?

[@JP-bb9hu]

it's really a little bit horrible how these lurid captions are used to sell old episodes.

[@catladyfromky4142]

The sketch style screams Toulouse-Lautrec to me. Especially the horses.

[@Iamnosey]

I agree

[@capjoartist1200]

The Art drawings or sketches are 100% of Henri de Toulouse Lautrec , the good friend of Vincent Van Gogh , the most respectful and very friendly greetings of me, Johan Capiau

[@dancingcolorsVdeRegil]

I loved this episode so much. HTL has always been a deep favorite, a few of my own drawings have been reminescent of his, though, not on purpose or through 10,000 hours of drawing (well, close?) anyway, what a deep and amazing story! And getting to walk around a chateau full of Toulouse Lautrec family history, goodness. Well done on this one, and I do hope they will come around all the way someday!

[@stephaniewoznicki2641]

Absolutely treasures they are no doubt by Henry I am interested in what the other two sketch books made at auction.

[@annabellelee4535]

They may very well be sketches by Henry, however, they are not sketches by Henri since they have not been declared authentic in the past 6 years.

[@CUMBICA1970]

Great show. I remember working as a laborer in a printing factory in Japan circa 1997 and we made mostly posters and calendars for beer companies and such. But occasionally we did other stuffs and I recall one that was probably a brochure for an art gallery and it was mostly about Toulouse-Lautrec. I didn't know him at all but all those can-can dancers' paintings stuck in my mind as we printed gazillions of them for days. BTW besides his name in big roman alphabets on the cover everything was in Japanese (duh!) so I didn't understand a thing. Only way later I learned he was quite a big of a deal.

[@earlperson741]

I LIKE " FAKE OR FORTUNE " ......... WHY? BECAUSE THEY CHECK-OUT THOUGH NON BASIS WAYS...... WHO ARE THESE ART WORKS------OF! BEFORE THEY DEAL WITH ART CRITICS.... THE 2 LEADS OF THE SHOW.... COME UP WITH EVIDENCE!!!..... VERY WELL DONE😉

[@normafollett6021]

Its wonder you two havent gone grey headed, with all the ups and down along the way. I must admite i enjoy it all. 👍.

[@jessicakoster2543]

For me the biggest clue was the initials. Why on earth would someone with the initials RP sign his work with HTL?

[@annabellelee4535]

It's called "forgery".

[@JavierBonillaC]

Fionna speaking French ah Mon Amour! I'm dead now.

[@annabellelee4535]

Gomez! Is that you???

[@JavierBonillaC]

@@annabellelee4535 oui Mon Cher….. hahahaha…. ( I didn’t think anyone would get that)

[@annabellelee4535]

@@JavierBonillaC LOL, I enjoyed your comment! Au revoir, Bubala!

[@JavierBonillaC]

Why treat the Committee members like proud fools who would only change their minds gradually as to avoid embarrassment? They indeed had very little time. They indeed are the gatekeepers that protect us from fraud and make your business and wonderful program possible? Much respect for these committees and their members.

[@RLucas3000]

The research provided by Harriett near the end is just what the committee needs to change their mind, if they ignore that, they are fools. The similarities are things forgers just wouldn’t have common knowledge of. I’m still bitter at the ‘expert’ who denied the glass pitcher painting when the previous expert on the artist had accepted it, and every piece of evidence the show assembled screamed at it being real. The lady was so heartbroken, not for the money, but for the art itself. I think she should sue the expert and they can both present their evidence to a jury in court.

[@silverymoon5516]

Hey Ryan, I'm very sorry to hear your bad news. 😢 Remember the saying, "this to shall pass".

[@BritishRiver]

Is it just me, or does it strike anyone else that Philip Mould would make a marvelous Mycroft Holmes, brother of Sherlock Holmes? He is exactly how I picture Mycroft would look. Hhmmm...

[@kathysaikin8975]

Why didn't you wait until autum when the French academy will analize again the scketches and finally gave a veredict and after that publish the video. At the end we don't know if it's fake or fortune. What a waist of time!!!!.

[@annabellelee4535]

It was fake.

[@marjoriejohnson6535]

Henri Marie Raymond du toulouse latric monfia ...if I remember right 60 years ago I wrote a term paper .....

[@ratiwabammekwa4219]

love the energy put on researching of artists work, that i think is T with a stroke and L not HTL , T-L

[@vaughangarrick]

The French don't like to be told they're wrong or made a mistake....especially by a Brit

[@celtoloco788]

thats cuz they lost the war. Which one? All of them..........

[@Seewith3eyes]

I LOVE THIS SHOW

[@whall5477]

Was anyone paying attention to how grandma, a house maid, obtained that? Think about it, what house maid can afford to buy art? She saw that somewhere she was cleaning and stuck it under her apron.

[@gordmacdonald9711]

G*D DAMN IT I LOVE THIS F%$@*N' SHOW!!!!!!!!!

[@celtoloco788]

its good innit! As an artist I cant get enough of it, I often dont even like the art in question, its the process I like

[@SKN1763]

Since the committee postponed their inquiry, did Fake or Fortune team send in the expert’s report?

[@tonya2646]

Wonderful program.

[@cruisepaige]

That guy with the little glasses looked SO FAMILIAR to me! I just KNEW IT!

[@LawrenceJamesBailey]

OMG!!!! Tooo mannnyyyy breaks for ads!!

[@huskytail]

I pay for the non-ad version of KZbin and once I forgot to update my visa information when I changed my card and became crazy for the few hours it took me to get the non-ad version back. I don't know how people do it day in day out

[@PatchworkUSA]

I believe that switching to the Chrome browser makes fewer ads.

[@chloeuntrau4588]

You can easily block them with AdBlock...it's free...

[@celtoloco788]

@@PatchworkUSA chrome has a built in adblocker. Go to the right top corner and turn it on. Your welcome

[@JOSEPHCHARLESCOLIN2024]

well done

[@jamesbean7560]

Add the science on these sketches and WHAM.....QED!!!

[@claytonluce1960]

Its his artwork. And at this point time will bear it out. The committee is undoubtably scrambling to rewrite the narrative to ultimately accept the work after they first disgraced it. But I have no doubt they are already convinced. In August or September the sketches will be verified as authentic and the committee will have found a way to save face on past incompetence while also publicly introducing an amazing new find for the art world.

[@annabellelee4535]

Why do you say that? How do you know that it was done by TL?This show was filmed in 2017 and shown in 2018. Obviously the committee declared them to be NOT authentic since they have not been declared authentic for around 6 years now.

[@mylesgarcia4625]

Re-watched this episode again after maybe, 2 years? It's just as gripping as their other episodes are. However, what I cannot wrap my head around is, and maybe Fiona should have explored this more is that Grandma Laure happened to live & work on the Rue Fauborg in the 1920s when that might have been the first time she picked up the 2 sketchbooks?? Then she moves to Algeria but in the mid-1950s, she brings her family back to France. They settle in St. Emillon which is THL country. How coincidental is that; and why was that so? Did Alain or Grandma Laure's families have historic links to Libourne and Bordeaux that that is where they would return -- and voila? that is when the sketchbooks are revealed to the outside world? I also wonder what the FINAL decision of the Commitee was??

[@jenh9361]

Signatures are also in the style of one's technique... It's quite obvious to me, with an untrained eye, that the teachers style is somewhat ridged compared to TL, whose style is more fluid and flowing... and even a bit cartoonish in manner! Ones hand doesn't drastically change over their artistic career. Their talents evolve, but their hand/style stays! Even when they go through phases such as Van Gogh...

[@clarissapennington895]

Did they recognize the drawings this is ridiculous.

[@mcclure440]

What happened to Dr. Barndoor?... He would have even better research to convince them...

[@bewareofpigeons]

Barndoor🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@celtoloco788]

@@bewareofpigeons made me laugh

[@jackbailey7037]

Opens with a lie. The "Art World" is not to be found in an auction house.

[@olivertwist8015]

I know the French are never disposed to give satisfaction if there is no benefit coming out of this and will never admit their errors for I live amongst them since over 35 years

[@rosalindchu7588]

The program is excellent yet btw, the cc could be a little more accurately posted on screen…it’s very misleading for people whose first language is not English.

[@celtoloco788]

this is a BBC show, I bet there's a better version out there. They are good with theyre CC

[@rosalindchu7588]

@@celtoloco788 thanjs

[@byronbuchanan3066]

How do professionals not know to keep their fingers off the sketches?! Finger oils stain the paper and they are smudging the graphite. I can hardly bear to watch this ignorance.

[@jiggyfun807]

Horses might be the key 🗝️ can we see a horse from that time

[@anthonymorales842]

Its in these experts opinions to discredit as many as possible. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence

[@annabellelee4535]

What do you expect when the vast majority coming on the market are fakes? The evidence is decent but not overwhelming.

[@WendySamples-xq7sq]

I saw a nazi symbol on that table there. Was the artist in the war.

[@catladyfromky4142]

What about DNA?

[@slowfootlabeef704]

Such a wonderful series!

[@Ceelle2]

They need to shorten the intro. Love the show, though.

[@celtoloco788]

just skip it

[@_luckicharms]

Part 2?

[@tiadiad]

Poppycocks on the hunt 37:42

[@Austinn72]

Science? Blasphemy!

[@dinola3268]

It's a 2018 video ...

[@elizabethhurtado2829]

These were at my local Goodwill

[@donaldkasper8346]

Dammit, I paid a buck each for two similar sketchbooks.

[@toddmurphy523]

@@donaldkasper8346 Were they blank sketchbooks?....🤣

[@donaldkasper8346]

@@toddmurphy523 Crap, always a confoundment.

[@mellie4174]

C'est tellement français ça. Nous avons déjà vu les œuvres pas besoin de les revoir. Vous avez d'autres preuves ? Pas de tout intéressé de l'entendre. Au revoir.

[@RickNelsonMn]

@43:00 it's obvious they're authentic. And, there's staggering evidence about the mediocre reliability of handwriting analysis. To me, get to that committee immediately and impress what is! What is obvious to your audience of this video. And, this is quite entertaining. Save, small irritation at the 43 minute mark. 👍🏻

[@annabellelee4535]

They were not declared authentic since this aired over 6 years ago.

[@elizabethhurtado2829]

💵

[@jamesedwardclard]

Those drawings look nothing like how Toulouse-Lautrec drew

[@jamesedwardclard]

@@sgalla1328 I own several books of collections of sketches by Lautrec from all through-out different periods of his life, they look nothing like anything they show in the documentary. But don't believe your lying eyes everybody! Believe this rich woman whose trying to make herself richer by flipping this random sketchbook she picked up somewhere and somehow managed to get a slick documentary made stating her case why this thing she happens to own is valuable. Give me a break

[@chemokiki]

I don't agree. I believe they are genuine. If you know the history of TlaT you will know about his observing and drawing animals in motion from a very early age. The horses alone, to me, are a dead give-a-way they are his work.

[@grahamfairbanks3407]

@@sgalla1328 🤣

[@stephaniewoznicki2641]

these are early works while he was in his teens before he met all the ho's in skirts it very much screams HTL if you know you know.

[@melanies.6030]

​@@jamesedwardclard What the hell are you on about ?!? The only thing random is your rambling gibberish. Try watching the show before commenting.

[@tschannelrph]

Now let us remind those damn French that the International Language of Today’s Cyber Era is Now English and thus I would say they are Fooling the World with their MonaLisa might be a fake! Now I do have important works under my care whom I have an idea that they are of great cultural significance for Australia and If its true as the keeper of these treasures will always be Australian.

[@tschannelrph]

Ofcors Lautrec from Nobility if he came to Australia… there should’nt be time limit we are in an infinito lmundo el mucho.

[@annabellelee4535]

Museums don't allow authenticators anywhere near their artwork. The risk of artwork being a fake is just too high.

[@hdub8093]

Committees like that are often full of snobbish know-it-alls, who think their word is final even in the face of good solid evidence

[@4dooky]

The HOA of the art world 😂

[@NeungView]

And what made you an expert? How about mentioning three snobbish know-it-alls that work in an art committee? I bet you can't. Considering the risk of approving something that must later be changed back again, the money involved and the risk of getting sued, err on the side of caution is the only sensible thing to do.

[@toddmurphy523]

@@NeungView But has anyone ever successfully sued a Foundation Approval Committee?

[@stephjezo6470]

@@4dookyMost underrated comment online in a decade. 🤣💀

[@celtoloco788]

@@4dooky pfft. Well said