Lucian Freud is recognized as the author of the picture, despite the rejection of it

LONDON. BBC experts argue that the controversial painting, worth 300,000 pounds, was painted precisely by Lucian Freud, despite the fact that the artist himself denied his authorship throughout his life. Fiona Bruce and art historian Philip Mold, authors of the Fake or Fortune Air Force program, are sure that it was Freud who painted the picture of a man in a black tie.

“Freud is the colossus of modern art of the twentieth century, and with some trepidation we disputed his own statement,” says Fiona Bruce.

London designer John Turner got a job from two friends of the artist, Denis Wörth-Miller and Richard Chopping, who said that the painting was Freud’s early work, written by him back in the art school, in 1939. Woert-Miller and Freud studied at a school in East Anglia together and were reportedly constantly at odds. Turner said that Woerth-Miller handed him the painting with the condition that he would sell it with the greatest publicity possible to humiliate Freud.

Throughout his life, Freud has denied that the painting belongs to him, confusing art experts. Employees of the auction house Christie’s in 1985 identified it as belonging to Freud’s brush, but changed their mind after the artist refused to work.

For the filming of "Fakes or Good Luck," Bruce and Mould talked to a former artist’s attorney, who in his archive found a recording of a telephone conversation with Freud from 2006 about this picture. During the negotiations, Freud mentioned that he began to paint this picture, but it was completed by someone else, so he does not recognize it as his work.

Air Force experts analyzed the methods and materials used to write the canvas and came to the conclusion that the author has one painting. A group of three experts confirmed that the painting was written by Freud, around 1939. Philip Mould estimated the picture at more than 300,000 pounds.

“In the course of this investigation, we had to study Freud as a person. He had an unusual and controversial character. And only having understood it, we began to understand why he always denied his authorship of this work, ”concluded Fiona Bruce.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru