The Best Episodes of Fake or Fortune? Season 5

Episode Rankings

1. #1 Fan Favorite
   

   8.2/10(30 votes)

   #1 - Freud

   S5:E17/17/2016

   The team investigates a portrait believed to be an early work by Lucian Freud, despite the artist having denied painting it during his lifetime. Research leads back to Freud’s teenage years at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing, while technical analysis examines whether he may have worked over an abandoned canvas begun by someone else.

   Director:Rachel Jardine

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Rachel Jardine

   Writer:Unknown
2. 

   8.4/10(32 votes)

   #2 - Delaroche

   S5:E27/24/2016

   A painting bought for £500 is investigated as the possible lost royal commission Saint Amelia, Queen of Hungary by Paul Delaroche. Fiona and Philip trace it from the exiled French royal family to Britain and use archival and scientific evidence to distinguish the original work from the many contemporary copies made after it.

   Director:Nicky Illis

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Nicky Illis

   Writer:Unknown
3. 

   7.9/10(29 votes)

   #3 - Rodin

   S5:E37/31/2016

   A family-owned watercolour is said to belong to Auguste Rodin’s celebrated series of Cambodian dancers. With little documented provenance and the shadow of prolific Rodin forger Ernest Durig hanging over the work, the team studies its materials, signature and fluid painting technique in search of a reliable attribution.

   Director:Francis Welch

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Francis Welch

   Writer:Unknown
4. 

   7.9/10(28 votes)

   #4 - Portraits

   S5:E48/21/2016

   Three unrelated portraits are investigated as possible works by Philip Mercier, Adolph von Menzel and Willem de Kooning. The cases produce sharply different outcomes, ranging from a neglected bargain to a convincing forgery and a promising attribution complicated by unresolved ownership history.

   Director:Robert Murphy

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Robert Murphy

   Writer:Unknown