Monday, December 9

THE ART DETECTIVES, Series 4

Clip (series 3)

At any one time, over 80% of Britain's publicly owned art collection is locked away in storage. Historians Bendor Grosvenor and Emma Dabiri reveal the stories behind some exciting lesser-known works among Britain's largest collections, located in local museums and country houses: they uncover a Madonna and Child painting in the stores of the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff and investigate whether it was by iconic early Renaissance "The Birth of Venus" artist Botticelli, or a follower of his; the duo investigate a roughly painted woodland scene catalogued as 'After' Thomas Gainsborough at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, studying evidence that it may be a preparatory sketch for the painter's last great landscape: one of his picturesque 'Cottage Door' series. (3 EPS, 2019)