The Art Detectives

Right in the middle of a Glasgow city park sits Pollok House, which holds an impressive collection of Spanish art, much of it now in storage. Dr. Bendor Grosvenor and Emma Dabiri travel to Glasgow to investigate a long-lost picture of George Villiers-who was rumored to have been James I’s lover-possibly painted by Rubens.

Joseph Wright of Derby was an acclaimed English artist inspired by the Industrial Revolution, and Derby Museum has the best collection of his paintings in the world. Grosvenor and Dabiri peel back the layers of a modern restoration on a landscape painting in the museum’s vaults to determine if it is a hidden masterpiece.

Grosvenor and Dabiri head to Carmarthenshire to investigate two intriguing portraits of a local nobleman and his wife, the Earl and Countess of Carbery, possibly painted by the great Sir Peter Lely in the 17th century. However, Bendor has a hunch that the portrait of the Countess was done by Mary Beale, Britain’s first commercially successful female artist.

Hospitalfield House on Scotland’s east coast is a Victorian treasure trove, full of ornate carved ceilings, sculpted fireplaces, exquisite plasterwork, and stonework by master masons. Among the many Victorian paintings, could a mysterious 16th-century portrait by one of the great Old Master artists lie waiting to be discovered?