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Crown Court: the gripping courtroom drama from the 1970s and 1980s.
Art collector Walter Lander purchased an extremely valuable painting from British collector Alice Starkie. When he announced his purchase to the art world, another collector came forward to claim that he had the original painting for several years, and that Lander's purchase must be a fake. Alice Starkie is charged with obtaining money by deception.
The phenomenal Susan Engel stars as the defendant. Doctor Who fans will recognise Richard Hurndall, who appeared as the First Doctor in The Five Doctors. Here, he looks more like the Third Doctor played by Jon Pertwee!
Art collector Walter Lander purchased an extremely valuable painting from British collector Alice Starkie. When he announced his purchase to the art world, another collector came forward to claim that he had the original painting for several years, and that Lander's purchase must be a fake. Alice Starkie is charged with obtaining money by deception.
The phenomenal Susan Engel stars as the defendant. Doctor Who fans will recognise Richard Hurndall, who appeared as the First Doctor in The Five Doctors. Here, he looks more like the Third Doctor played by Jon Pertwee!
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TVTranscript
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00:00:10Something of a crisis occurred in the art world last year,
00:00:19when Walter Lander, the wealthy American collector,
00:00:22announced to the world at large that he had procured the bacchus of Benedetto Travato.
00:00:27Travato, until a few years ago unknown in art circles,
00:00:30has recently emerged as one of the great overlooked painters.
00:00:34Of the Venetian school, and thought to be a disciple of Titian himself,
00:00:37his canvases, of which there are very few, fetch high prices.
00:00:41Mr Lander paid £20,000 for the bacchus.
00:00:44However, the purchase was followed by an immediate disclaimer.
00:00:48Antonio Sforza, secretary to the aged Duc de Severin,
00:00:52announced that the bacchus had long hung in his master's private collection in Provence.
00:00:57Therefore, Walter Lander had been deceived.
00:01:00Mr Lander then revealed that he had not bought the painting through an accredited dealer,
00:01:04but privately from an obscure British painter of his acquaintance, Alice Starkey.
00:01:09Miss Starkey, a landscape artist and occasional portrait painter,
00:01:13maintained publicly that she had sold the canvas in good faith,
00:01:16believing it indeed to be a bacchus of Benedetto Travato.
00:01:20Today, however, in the Crown Court,
00:01:22Alice Starkey answers charges of obtaining property by deception,
00:01:26contrary to Section 15 of the Theft Act, 1968.
00:01:30Mr Charles Lotterby prosecutes,
00:01:32Miss Helen Tate appears for the defence,
00:01:34and Judge Bragg presides.
00:01:37Now, Mr Lander, do you recognise this painting?
00:01:52Yes, that is the one which Alice Starkey represented to me as being the bacchus by Benedetto Travato.
00:02:11I therefore introduce this painting in evidence.
00:02:13It should be marked Exhibit One.
00:02:18Now, Mr Lander, for this painting you paid Miss Starkey the sum of £20,000.
00:02:22I did.
00:02:23How did you pay the money over? By cheque, bank draft?
00:02:25By cheque. Cheque to cash.
00:02:26Isn't that a little unusual?
00:02:28Well, when you're buying paintings you have to go along with what the vendor wants.
00:02:32It isn't like buying real estate or something across the counter in a store.
00:02:37It's a question of faith more than anything else,
00:02:39and the parties involved and the quality of their goods.
00:02:43Are you saying that Miss Starkey asked you to make the cheque payable to cash?
00:02:47Yes.
00:02:48You find in transactions of this sort people don't always want there to be a record of the sale?
00:02:52Your Honour?
00:02:53Yes.
00:02:54Mr Lotterby, that is both the leading question and a matter of comment.
00:02:57Of lies, Your Honour.
00:02:59Now, Mr Lander, can you tell us in more detail how it was you came to purchase this painting from Miss Starkey?
00:03:04Well, I was in England to buy some paintings, if I could,
00:03:07and one day in March I heard about an old mansion in Rustingford,
00:03:12the contents of which were up for auction.
00:03:16I went down to see what the gallery contained,
00:03:18and there, by chance, I met Miss Starkey, who was also looking around.
00:03:22There was nothing of real interest in the sale,
00:03:25but once Miss Starkey learned who I was and what I was after,
00:03:29she told me that if I was prepared to keep quiet about it,
00:03:32she could perhaps put me in the way of a genuine art treasure.
00:03:37If you were prepared to keep quiet about it?
00:03:39Yes.
00:03:40And those were her exact words?
00:03:42They were.
00:03:43Thank you. Continue.
00:03:44Well, I didn't know what to make of it at first.
00:03:46There are a lot of tricksters around the edges of the art business.
00:03:50You have to be careful.
00:03:51But I made sure that Miss Starkey really was a painter herself, as she said she was,
00:03:56and I went around to her studio the next day at around five,
00:04:00and there she produced that painting there.
00:04:03It was really quite remarkable.
00:04:06It carried the signature, Benedetto Travato,
00:04:09and it certainly looked of its period.
00:04:11It seemed a genuine find and certainly a bargain.
00:04:14Twenty thousand pounds, you'd regard a Travato painting as a bargain?
00:04:17Oh, yes.
00:04:18Twenty-two or twenty-three thousand wouldn't be an unreasonable figure in investment terms today.
00:04:23You see, Travato's value keeps escalating.
00:04:26His John the Baptist went for thirty-one and a half in New York last year.
00:04:30Indeed.
00:04:32Incidentally, did Miss Starkey tell you how she came to be in possession of this painting?
00:04:36I was very careful to inquire, sir.
00:04:39She told me that she'd recently returned from a painting tour of Italy,
00:04:43and while she was in Venice she bought up a job lot of old canvases to reuse,
00:04:49and among them she found the Bacchus.
00:04:53And she then offered you for twenty thousand pounds
00:04:56this painting we see here today as the Bacchus of Benedetto Travato.
00:05:00That is correct.
00:05:01Thank you, Mr. Lander.
00:05:04Mr. Lander, you have just said that Miss Starkey offered you the painting we see here today
00:05:08as the Bacchus of Benedetto Travato.
00:05:11Yes, I have.
00:05:12As the Bacchus or as a Bacchus, Mr. Lander?
00:05:15I beg your pardon?
00:05:17Well, there is a distinction, you see.
00:05:19I want you to cast your mind back to that day in Miss Starkey's studio.
00:05:24Now, when she offered you the painting,
00:05:26did she say, here is the Bacchus by Benedetto Travato,
00:05:30or merely, I'm offering you a Bacchus by Benedetto Travato?
00:05:35As I recall, the latter.
00:05:37A Bacchus.
00:05:38Implying, then, that there might well be others.
00:05:41I'm sorry, I...
00:05:42You see, I want to make it quite clear that Miss Starkey's case is that she believed this to be a Bacchus by Travato,
00:05:49and did not suggest to you that it was the only Bacchus.
00:05:54Now, you stated that at Rustingford, my client told you that she could put you in the way of a genuine work of art,
00:06:01provided you were prepared to keep quiet about it.
00:06:03Yes.
00:06:04Seems you didn't keep quiet, Mr. Lander.
00:06:07Well, no, why on earth should I?
00:06:09It was a crazy condition.
00:06:10I didn't take it seriously for a minute.
00:06:12A man comes across a previously undiscovered work of art, he wants to let everybody know about it.
00:06:17That's what collecting means.
00:06:18Well, did Miss Starkey give you any idea why she wanted you to keep quiet, perhaps?
00:06:22No.
00:06:23Did she not explain why she wanted the 20,000 pounds in cash, rather than by cross-check?
00:06:29No, not at all.
00:06:30Oh, come, Mr. Lander.
00:06:32Didn't Miss Starkey make some remarks about British tax?
00:06:35Oh, tax.
00:06:37I didn't take that seriously.
00:06:40Let me assure you, Mr. Lander, that in the British Isles, everything to do with tax is taken seriously.
00:06:46She did say something about capital gains tax.
00:06:50So you received the impression, did you not, that Miss Starkey wanted a private sale and a cheque to cash in order to avoid a tax bill?
00:06:59She said that she needed all the money in order to continue painting.
00:07:04She even told me that she'd been waiting for somebody like me to come along in order to sell the Travato in the way she needed, without publicity or fuss.
00:07:11She was certainly waiting for somebody like me to come along.
00:07:14Thank you, Mr. Lander.
00:07:18You may stand down, Mr. Lander.
00:07:27Your Honor, my next witness is Quentin Brooke, the eminent art critic, but first of all there is a procedural matter.
00:07:32I wish to introduce a second exhibit at this point, but a question of identification will arise,
00:07:37which can only be resolved by a witness I mean to call a little later, Senor Antonio Sforza.
00:07:42One minute, Mr. Landerby.
00:07:44Senor Sforza, yes. Secretary to the Duke of Severan.
00:07:48Is the gentleman present?
00:07:49He is, Your Honor.
00:07:50Then I take it you're asking if you may call him to make the identification now, and hear the rest of his evidence later.
00:07:56That is so, Your Honor.
00:07:58Couldn't take all his evidence at this point?
00:08:00Well, there is other evidence that really ought to be heard first.
00:08:03Hmm.
00:08:04Has the defense any objection to this?
00:08:05None, whatever, Your Honor.
00:08:06Then you may proceed, Mr. Landerby.
00:08:09Call Antonio Sforza.
00:08:10Antonio Sforza, please.
00:08:25What religion are you, please?
00:08:26Roman Catholic.
00:08:27Take the Bible in your right hand, and read the words written on the card.
00:08:31I swear by Almighty God that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
00:08:41You are Antonio Sforza?
00:08:43Yes, I am.
00:08:44But you are employed as Secretary to His Excellency of the Duke of Severan, having special responsibility for his estates and possessions in Chateau Grandy, Provence.
00:08:52That is so.
00:08:53And that is where you live?
00:08:54Yes.
00:08:55Mr. Landerby.
00:08:56Mr. Landerby.
00:08:57Yes.
00:08:58Mr. Landerby.
00:08:59I will simply make an identification for him.
00:09:00He will clear that up, and then I shall ask you to wait outside again and hear the rest of your evidence later.
00:09:04Yes, ma'am.
00:09:27I introduce this painting in evidence as Exhibit 2.
00:09:34Mr. Landerby.
00:09:35Ah, senior Sforza, can you identify this painting for us, please?
00:09:39I think perhaps I can.
00:09:41May I examine it a little more closely?
00:09:42Yes, yes, please.
00:09:44Yes.
00:09:45That is a painting known as the Bacchus of Benedetto Trovato, which for the last seven years has hung in the private collection of His Excellency, Le Duc de Severan.
00:09:57Did you yourself supervise the transportation of this painting to England some three days ago?
00:09:58Yes, I did.
00:09:59Thank you, sir.
00:10:00I have nothing to ask the witness for the time being, your honor.
00:10:01Then I will ask you to leave the courtroom again for the time being, seniors Sforza.
00:10:02Remember that you are now under oath.
00:10:03You must not discuss the case with anybody.
00:10:05Yes, sir.
00:10:06Yes, sir.
00:10:07I now call Quentin Brooke.
00:10:08Yes, sir.
00:10:09I have nothing to ask the witness for the time being, your honor.
00:10:10Then I will ask you to leave the courtroom again for the time being, seniors Sforza.
00:10:15Remember that you are now under oath.
00:10:17You must not discuss the case with anybody.
00:10:18Yes, sir.
00:10:19I now call Quentin Brooke.
00:10:33Quentin Brooke, please.
00:10:45I'll affirm, if you don't mind
00:10:50I do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare
00:10:53and affirm that the evidence I shall give
00:10:55shall be the truth, the whole truth
00:10:56and nothing but the truth
00:10:57Your name is Quentin Brooke
00:11:00and you live at the Beaches' Camelford Lane Maidenhead
00:11:03That is correct
00:11:04I'm sure my friend won't mind if I lead on this
00:11:06You are a writer on art
00:11:09broadcaster, critic of the Review Fraternity
00:11:11and author of a book entitled
00:11:13Titian and the Venetians
00:11:15I am
00:11:15Mr. Brooke, you are regarded as something of an authority
00:11:18on Venetian painting of the 16th century
00:11:20I've published a monograph on the subject
00:11:22as you pointed out
00:11:22I suppose my views are reasonably well respected
00:11:24Are you acquainted with the works of Benedetto Travato?
00:11:28I've taken a particular interest in him since 1965
00:11:30when he was established as a personality
00:11:32of the Venetian school
00:11:34Travato was a disciple of Titian
00:11:36possibly his greatest
00:11:37Can you tell us if either of these works
00:11:39marked one and two
00:11:40is in your view by Benedetto Travato?
00:11:43Thank you
00:11:45On ourã‚¡!
00:11:47On ourë!
00:11:49Godtempo I!
00:11:50Yes, I do!
00:11:52Love this very much
00:11:53I may think of him
00:11:54On our heart
00:11:55....
00:11:56How to enter
00:11:57What?
00:11:58Why to enter
00:11:59What?
00:12:00Are you equal to me with this you
00:12:01anything
00:12:02I may bear
00:12:04I will met man
00:12:04I will to let him
00:12:05See you
00:12:06software
00:12:07I will
00:12:07Or
00:12:08This
00:12:09I may
00:12:10author
00:12:11Course
00:12:11Yes, this is the Travato, Exhibit No. 2.
00:12:25It is the Bacchus from the private collection of the Duke de Severin.
00:12:29And the other painting, Mr. Brook?
00:12:31Oh, well, I'm not sure.
00:12:35By an unskillful hand.
00:12:38I'd say it was a cheap and common imitation.
00:12:41Now, Mr. Brook, let us be quite clear.
00:12:59Exhibit 2 is, in your opinion, the genuine Travato.
00:13:02Oh, no doubt about it.
00:13:04And Exhibit 1 is a copy.
00:13:06Exactly, a forgery.
00:13:07Forgery is a pretty strong word, Mr. Brook.
00:13:09No, chosen advisedly.
00:13:11What I mean is that if Exhibit 2 here is an original, and it unquestionably is, then
00:13:17Exhibit 1 is a deliberate copy of it.
00:13:19Will you tell the court how it is you can be so certain of that?
00:13:21Oh, every line, every detail of the pose and landscape is the same.
00:13:26And not only the same, but slavishly so, if you can understand what I mean.
00:13:29The whole thing is rather like one of those exercises students do, going into art galleries
00:13:33and making dreadful copies of old masters to try and learn something about technique.
00:13:37And what precisely makes you certain that Exhibit 2 is a genuine Travato?
00:13:41Oh, that's a horse of a different colour.
00:13:42Not only is the brushwork and the definition immensely superior, but there is the internal
00:13:48evidence as well.
00:13:50Now, Travato was a man of the people, you see.
00:13:51This is what makes him unique in the Venetian school.
00:13:54His master Titian was more remote, more aristocratic in approach.
00:13:57But for Travato, even in the patrician milieu of 16th century Venice, it was the face of the
00:14:02hard-working peasant, the thew and sinew of rugged toil that attracted him.
00:14:06Just look at this Bacchus.
00:14:09Bacchus was the Greco-Roman god of wine, a being of legend, of fantasy.
00:14:13But here, you see, Travato was not afraid to give him the face and the nose of a tipsy
00:14:17farm labourer, with supple muscles, capable hands.
00:14:22It's an amusing piece of work in its way, meant to make one laugh.
00:14:27A lot too sly dig at the effete Venetians who certainly worship Bacchus and the way they
00:14:31down their wine, but had deliberately thrust away from them his essential connection with
00:14:35the fields, the cultivation of the vine hard on his toil.
00:14:40I see.
00:14:42Well, to get back to the copy, Mr. Brock, Exhibit 1, which you so confidently call a forgery,
00:14:47can you tell us when this might have been made?
00:14:50No, no, I'm afraid I can't.
00:14:51That's not in my field.
00:14:53But I suspect in quite recent time.
00:14:55Ah, why quite recent time?
00:14:57Well, it's only just turned up, hasn't it?
00:14:58I mean, people have been looking for undiscovered Travatos for a number of years now.
00:15:02We've probably found all we're going to find.
00:15:04Would it have required an artist of great skill to make this forgery?
00:15:08Not of great skill, no.
00:15:09Somebody clever.
00:15:10Clever?
00:15:11Yes, quick and reasonably assured, with a gift for artistic mimicry.
00:15:15Yet you've said the whole thing looks like no more than a student's exercise.
00:15:19Well, some of those are agreeably clever.
00:15:21They just miss the vital spark, you see.
00:15:22It's immediately obvious to the eye of experience.
00:15:24Well, would you now return to the witness box, Mr. Brook?
00:15:29Oh.
00:15:35Now, on a different matter, Mr. Brook,
00:15:37are you acquainted with the work of Alice Starkey?
00:15:40I've seen some of her paintings from time to time, yes.
00:15:43Written about them, perhaps, in your capacity as art critic of the Review of Fraternity?
00:15:46That's true.
00:15:47Favourably?
00:15:48Well, would you regard Miss Starkey as a clever painter?
00:15:51Your Honour, my friend is leading the witness.
00:15:54No, Miss Tate, I don't think that question suggests an answer one way or the other.
00:15:58Counsel for the prosecution is merely eliciting an opinion from expert witness,
00:16:04which is hardly out of order.
00:16:09You may answer the question, Mr. Brook.
00:16:11Well, yes, I would regard Alice Starkey as a clever painter, basically.
00:16:15She has a certain confidence.
00:16:17I found her work lacking in inner meaning, significance.
00:16:20But on the surface, unquestionably clever.
00:16:22And you've told us that by clever you mean with a gift for artistic mimicry?
00:16:26Yes.
00:16:27Copying, in other words.
00:16:28In a sense, yes.
00:16:29One final question, Mr. Brook.
00:16:30Referring to Exhibit 2 again, the genuine Bacchus,
00:16:33did Benedetto Travato paint many pictures on this subject?
00:16:36No, as far as I'm aware, only one.
00:16:39Only one?
00:16:40Yes.
00:16:40You're quite sure of that?
00:16:42Bacchus was a fairly common theme among the Phoenicians at this time.
00:16:46But as I've said, most of us are under the impression
00:16:48we found all the Travatos we're likely to find,
00:16:50and there's only one Bacchus among them.
00:16:52I see.
00:16:53Thank you, Mr. Brook.
00:16:57Mr. Brook.
00:16:59I haven't finished yet.
00:17:00Can you please come back?
00:17:07Mr. Brook.
00:17:08You base your opinion that Exhibit 2 is the genuine Travato
00:17:12upon the superiority of the brushwork,
00:17:15and secondly, upon the internal evidence.
00:17:18Yes.
00:17:18Anything else?
00:17:20No, I think those are the two points.
00:17:22And the internal evidence is that Travato is a man of the people,
00:17:25and this comes out in his work.
00:17:27Exactly.
00:17:27Is there any real proof that Benedetto Travato
00:17:32was a man of the people, Mr. Brook?
00:17:35I beg your pardon?
00:17:36Well, from the way you've spoken,
00:17:38one would assume that he was a working farmer or some such
00:17:40who turned to painting.
00:17:43But is there any historical support for your view?
00:17:46Well, not historical in the sense of documented evidence.
00:17:49We know very little about Travato.
00:17:50Little more than his name, in fact.
00:17:51For certain.
00:17:52However...
00:17:52Now, the review for which you act as art critic, Mr. Brook, fraternity.
00:17:56Couldn't this be described as a left-wing publication?
00:18:00Yes, is it relevant?
00:18:01And you yourself, on the more than one occasion,
00:18:04suggested that your political stance is Marxist?
00:18:07I don't believe my politics come into this.
00:18:09But it's right, isn't it?
00:18:11Yes.
00:18:12Now, since so little is known of Travato,
00:18:14couldn't your idea that he is a man of the people
00:18:16be just a little bit of Marxist wishful thinking?
00:18:20What absolute nonsense!
00:18:21Critics generally would agree with your interpretation?
00:18:25Oh, I didn't say that.
00:18:26I have made a particular study of Venetian painting of the 16th century
00:18:29and have come to certain conclusions about Benedetto Travato.
00:18:33The fact that other critics, with less knowledge,
00:18:35may have come to different ones is neither here nor there.
00:18:38Would you record the critic Gustav de Montauk
00:18:41as having less knowledge on the period in question than yourself?
00:18:44De Montauk?
00:18:45An old fool.
00:18:47Mr. Brok,
00:18:48I do not think that answer is at all useful.
00:18:50It does you no credit.
00:18:52Are you saying that you do not respect his views as an art critic?
00:18:57Yes, yes, that's what I'm saying.
00:18:59Yet Gustav de Montauk has written an authoritative book
00:19:02on Venetian painting in the 16th century, hasn't he?
00:19:04A book well regarded in the art world.
00:19:07De Montauk has written such a book,
00:19:08but in my view he has his feet firmly planted in the clouds.
00:19:12He yearns for the dear dead world of privilege and rank.
00:19:15The fact is, isn't it, Mr. Brok,
00:19:17that you have concluded that Travato is a man of the people
00:19:20by studying his work, and for no other reason.
00:19:24Yes.
00:19:24And other critics, including Gustav de Montauk,
00:19:27assert confidently that Travato was a patrician or aristocratic rank.
00:19:31Well, there is a surprising dearth of information.
00:19:33So these are two diametrically opposed views
00:19:35with regard to the internal evidence.
00:19:36Yes, but...
00:19:37So much for the internal evidence, Mr. Brok.
00:19:39Now you tell us that Travato painted only one Bacchus.
00:19:42As far as is known, Travato only painted one Bacchus.
00:19:47He might have painted others, then.
00:19:49There's no evidence to suggest it.
00:19:50How many Travato canvases are there, please?
00:19:52Five.
00:19:54Only five?
00:19:55For the lifetime's work of an artist?
00:19:58They are all young themes,
00:20:01if you can understand what I mean by that.
00:20:04With Travato, there is no indication of a middle or late period
00:20:07as with other painters.
00:20:08Just these five youthful paintings and then nothing.
00:20:10Some of us consider that he may possibly have died at an early age.
00:20:15A brief flowering, Mr. Brok.
00:20:16So to say.
00:20:17Yet still long enough to have produced more than one Bacchus, perhaps.
00:20:21If you are suggesting that that daub there
00:20:23is a newly discovered work by Benedetto Travato,
00:20:26then I reject your assertion out of hand.
00:20:28With all the weight of your personal opinion, Mr. Brok.
00:20:31Really, I don't see why I should stand for this.
00:20:33It would take a blind idiot not to see that Exhibit One
00:20:36is a footling and inexpert forgery.
00:20:39Footling?
00:20:40Inexpert?
00:20:41And yet done by a clever painter, I believe you said?
00:20:46I would like you to look at this document,
00:20:48which is an article by you in the Review Fraternity.
00:20:50I don't need to see it.
00:20:51I remember it.
00:20:53Do you recognise these words in the Review Fraternity
00:20:56of February the 5th, 1964?
00:21:00Even the command of the brush leaves much to be desired.
00:21:03An uncertainty of line is unforgivable
00:21:05in one who professes to practise art as a vocation.
00:21:10The bourgeois image expressed in terms of an imperfect technique
00:21:14makes for a most unpleasant visual experience.
00:21:18I don't remember the exact words, but I presume they are
00:21:20from a review I wrote of an exhibition Alice Starkey
00:21:23held of her work in 1964.
00:21:24Yes, Mr. Brok.
00:21:25And you considered Miss Starkey's work to be bourgeois?
00:21:28That work? Yes.
00:21:29And you was a Marxist, a bore of the bourgeois?
00:21:32Yes, of course!
00:21:33In fact, would it be right to say that you find such ideas
00:21:35and the originators of them revolting?
00:21:39Well, it was a long time ago.
00:21:42Miss Starkey had just begun then.
00:21:44I might not write at all the same sort of thing today.
00:21:47Thank you, Mr. Brok. That's all.
00:21:51Now you may stand down, Mr. Brok.
00:22:01I call Arthur James Goody.
00:22:04Arthur James Goody, please.
00:22:06What religion are you, please?
00:22:19I beg you, please.
00:22:21Bible in your right hand.
00:22:22Read the words on the card.
00:22:24I swear, by mighty God, that the image I shall give
00:22:26shall be the truth, the whole truth,
00:22:28and nothing but the truth.
00:22:28You are Arthur James Goody,
00:22:33and you live at 54 Oakhurst Gardens, Rochester.
00:22:36That's right, sir.
00:22:36What is your profession, please?
00:22:38I'm an art restorer, sir.
00:22:41The Stranwell Gallery retains me.
00:22:43In addition to general maintenance work
00:22:45on the canvases there,
00:22:46I sometimes have to do other work on painters
00:22:48to determine their age,
00:22:50authenticity,
00:22:51that sort of thing.
00:22:52Allow me to direct your attention
00:22:54to the painting marked Exhibit 1.
00:22:56Have you seen this painting before?
00:22:58Could I take a closer look at it, sir?
00:22:59Please do.
00:23:00Yes, I have, sir.
00:23:16Until yesterday,
00:23:17this painting was in my workroom at the Stranwell.
00:23:19You're completely sure it's the painting in question, Mr Goody?
00:23:22Quite sure, Your Honour.
00:23:22I recognise it quite clearly.
00:23:25Now, Mr Goody,
00:23:25did you conduct certain tests on that painting?
00:23:28I did, sir.
00:23:28What conclusion did you reach
00:23:30as a result of those tests?
00:23:31That the painting is of modern origin, sir.
00:23:34It is, in fact, a forgery.
00:25:15Oh, yes, there can be no doubt about it, sir.
00:25:34Yes.
00:25:35My examination of the materials of the painting marked in Exhibit 1 proved by conclusively
00:25:39it's of modern origin.
00:25:40I doubt if it's seven years old.
00:25:42Your Honor, I introduce Mr Goody's report on the painting in question as Exhibit 3.
00:25:47Well, is this an agreed document?
00:25:49Yes, Your Honor.
00:25:50We have seen it.
00:25:51It is agreed.
00:25:52Mr Goody, will you now tell the court the nature of the tests you conducted on the painting
00:25:56Exhibit 1?
00:25:57Well, the tests are a bit complicated to explain to a layman, but basically in a case like
00:26:02this we make use of two sorts, chemical and x-ray.
00:26:06Well, firstly, can you explain the purpose of the chemical tests?
00:26:09Well, these tell you things about the paint that's been used, the materials on the canvas generally.
00:26:14I mean, a particular pigmentation will often identify a particular period in art.
00:26:19Then old paint has certain qualities of friability and hardness that can be measured.
00:26:25We can work out roughly how long it's been there.
00:26:27And the x-ray tests?
00:26:29Ah, well, these help you to see below the surface layer of paint and so determine if
00:26:33the artist has painted over an earlier painting.
00:26:36It also reveals the nature of the fabric of the canvas.
00:26:40The exact composition of the fibre is of some moment.
00:26:44Then there are the cleats that may have been used to fix the canvas.
00:26:47The nature of the joints of the wood, if that's original and so on.
00:26:51Now, these tests, they were quite adequate.
00:26:54Oh, yes, there could be no doubt about it.
00:26:56They proved quite conclusively that an 18th-century canvas had been used.
00:27:00The Bacchus has been painted over an earlier portrait of an Italian nobleman.
00:27:05Well, as for the chemical tests, well, after some difficulty, they revealed we were dealing with modern materials, too.
00:27:10How do you mean after some difficulty?
00:27:12Well, there'd been a most interesting attempt to reproduce 16th-century Venetian colour tones with contemporary dyes.
00:27:20The artist responsible for this forgery had gone to great care
00:27:24to achieve 16th-century colour tones.
00:27:27Now, I believe this had been done by extracting pigments from natural minerals such as lapistaguli for blue.
00:27:33Most interesting. Most interesting.
00:27:36Also, the paint had been carefully aged.
00:27:39Now, this is done by subjecting it to a series of baking processes.
00:27:43You know, Webber was responsible for this, and if he'd just taken a little bit more care,
00:27:48I mean, the truth might never have been known.
00:27:50Can you think of any reason, any other reason, why such processes should be used,
00:27:54other than a desire to make the picture look old?
00:27:57No. No. It looks like a forgery. In the great tradition, if I may say so.
00:28:03Thank you, Mr Goody.
00:28:06Mr Goody, would it, in your view, have taken a skilled artist to achieve this forgery?
00:28:11Well, certainly somebody who knew what he was doing, yes.
00:28:14A clever artist, perhaps?
00:28:16Well, um, clever is hardly the word.
00:28:18It's a special sort of gift, this sort of thing.
00:28:21A sort of photographic technique which some people just seem to be born with.
00:28:26It's entirely professional.
00:28:28Professional?
00:28:29Oh, yes, entirely so.
00:28:31You mean the forgery's professional?
00:28:33Recognisably so.
00:28:34I see.
00:28:36Then it could not have been achieved by someone with no previous experience,
00:28:40who, um, wanting to make a bit of money thought,
00:28:43I'll knock up a travato and see what I can get for it.
00:28:46No. No, that's... that's out of the question.
00:28:49It's a professional job.
00:28:51Thank you, Mr Goody. Thank you very much.
00:28:54Thank you, Mr Goody. You may stand down.
00:28:57And it is at this point, Your Honour, that I wish to recall Antonio Sforza.
00:29:08Antonio Sforza, please.
00:29:19I must remind you that you're still under oath, Senor Sforza.
00:29:22Senor Sforza, you have testified that you are secretary to the Duke de Severin
00:29:27and have special responsibility for his estates and possessions in Chateau Grandy, Provence.
00:29:32Can you detail your duties for us, please?
00:29:34Well, His Excellency is now a very elderly man
00:29:36and I am virtually responsible for all his affairs.
00:29:39For everything?
00:29:40Well, he has no children, so somebody is necessary to manage things for him.
00:29:44You'd be responsible for the vineyards, then?
00:29:47The vineyards? But yes.
00:29:49And for the Duke's private collection of paintings?
00:29:52That is one of my more pleasurable duties.
00:29:55This collection is what is known as jealously guarded, isn't it, Senor?
00:29:59His Excellency is perhaps a little, I think you would say, obsessional about this.
00:30:04He spent a lifetime building up a collection and, alas, allows very few people to see it.
00:30:10It comprises how many paintings?
00:30:13Forty-five.
00:30:14And the Bacchus by Benedetto Trovato, is that one of his more prized possessions?
00:30:19Well, that's important, of course, but I think its real value lies in the fact that it was the first Trovato ever to come to light.
00:30:26His Excellency first heard of his discovery in Venice in 1965 and at once arranged for his purchase.
00:30:32I remember at that time thinking he was making a mistake, but once again he demonstrated his unique flair.
00:30:41He is truly one of the great collectors.
00:30:44Were reproductions of the Bacchus ever made?
00:30:47Oh, no, no, no, no.
00:30:48His Excellency has always refused to permit copies of his paintings.
00:30:52Senor Sforza, two seasons ago now, at the time of the grape harvest,
00:30:57did you supervise the management of additional labour for the vineyards?
00:31:01Yes, I did.
00:31:02Is there somebody in this court who was employed in the vineyards at that time?
00:31:06There is.
00:31:08Would you identify him or her, please?
00:31:10It is the accused, Miss Alice Starkey.
00:31:15You were saying that the accused took work as a Greek picker at Chateau Grandy in the season of two seasons ago?
00:31:21Yes, representing herself as a schoolteacher on vacation.
00:31:25A schoolteacher?
00:31:26Yes.
00:31:27At harvest time, you must have to deal with dozens of new people.
00:31:31Why is it you remember Miss Starkey so clearly?
00:31:34Because while she was at Chateau Grandy, her conduct was reported to me.
00:31:38Oh, don't tell me what you heard, just what you did.
00:31:40Well, I saw her, and I asked her what she had been doing in the picture collection.
00:31:45Did she deny she'd been there?
00:31:46No.
00:31:47So I reprimanded her and told her that she was not to go into the collection again.
00:31:52But two days later, I saw her there myself, and this time with a camera.
00:31:59A camera?
00:32:00Yes.
00:32:01What did you do then?
00:32:02Well, I dismissed her immediately because it's absolutely forbidden to take photographs.
00:32:07Did you discover which paintings Miss Starkey was photographing?
00:32:11No, no, no.
00:32:12I merely destroyed the whole film.
00:32:15Now, Senor Sforza, Miss Starkey was discovered in the picture gallery on two occasions,
00:32:20and in one instance at least with a camera.
00:32:23That is so.
00:32:24Thank you, Senor.
00:32:29Senor Sforza, as you've already pointed out, His Excellency the Duke de Severin is regarded
00:32:35as one of the great collectors of modern times in the world of art.
00:32:38Yes.
00:32:40Yet also as profoundly eccentric, ungenerous, criminally selfish,
00:32:46and is heavily criticised for not letting more people see his collection of paintings.
00:32:50Isn't that so?
00:32:51Well, he is an elderly man.
00:32:53He is called reactionary, a survival of feudalism, living in the past.
00:32:58That is a matter of opinion, is it not?
00:33:01So a person wanting to see the collection would have to get in by stealth, wouldn't they?
00:33:05Yes, they would, because only His Excellency's closest friends are permitted to see the paintings.
00:33:10Now, the film, Senor Sforza, the film that you took from Alice Starkey's camera
00:33:14when you encountered her in the gallery.
00:33:16Yes.
00:33:17Now, you say you don't know what was on it.
00:33:19No.
00:33:20I simply destroyed it.
00:33:22So there might have been nothing on it then?
00:33:24But there must have been something on it.
00:33:26Why?
00:33:27Because she must have had a reason for bringing her camera into the gallery.
00:33:32And also she's probably taken other films besides the one which I destroyed.
00:33:36Did you see Miss Starkey take a photograph?
00:33:38No, not actually see her.
00:33:42So you do not know if she took a photograph in the collection?
00:33:47Not for certain, no.
00:33:49Thank you, Senor Sforza.
00:33:50No further questions, Your Honor.
00:33:53Senor Sforza, have you ever encountered intruders in the Petri Gallery before?
00:33:57Oh, I believe there was once a drunken peasant, but after that no one.
00:34:00So there aren't long lines of practicing painters with cameras clamoring to get in?
00:34:05Hardly.
00:34:06Would you say it would require a determined and indeed subtle effort to get into that picture gallery?
00:34:10I most certainly would because the whole estate is most closely guarded.
00:34:16Thank you, Senor.
00:34:34Your Honor, the defense will be calling only one witness today apart from the accused herself.
00:34:39The second witness has a considerable distance to come and since there is no news yet of his arrival,
00:34:45I fear I may have to crave the court's indulgence a little later on.
00:34:49However, I now call the accused, Alice Starkey.
00:34:52I swear by all mighty God that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
00:35:01Your name is Alice Starkey of Three Calladay Gardens, Barnesborough, and you're a painter by profession.
00:35:11And on the 20th of March last, you sold a painting that you attributed to Benedetto Trovato to Walter Lander for the sum of 20,000 pounds.
00:35:20Is all this correct?
00:35:21It is.
00:35:22How did you describe the painting to him?
00:35:35How did you describe the painting to him?
00:35:38I said it was a Bacchus by Trovato.
00:35:42Do you see that painting in court today?
00:35:44It's the one over there marked Exhibit One.
00:35:46Now it has been testified that this painting is of modern origin and is therefore a forgery.
00:35:51Yes.
00:35:52Were you aware of this fact at the time of the sale to Mr. Lander?
00:35:55No.
00:35:56On the contrary.
00:35:58How did you come about this picture, Mr. Starkey?
00:36:01In May of last year, I set off on a trip to Italy.
00:36:05I wanted to do some painting as well as tripping around, but I didn't have much money.
00:36:10I had to cut costs.
00:36:11Art materials are very expensive these days.
00:36:13So in Venice, I bought up a job lot of canvases being chucked out of an old church.
00:36:17I intended to reuse the backs.
00:36:20Then I became aware of this one painting which looked different from all the others.
00:36:24A genuine survival from an earlier period.
00:36:27It was signed, Benedetto Trovato.
00:36:30And what did you do?
00:36:32Nothing just then.
00:36:34I decided the best course to take would be to get the canvas home and think things over a bit.
00:36:39I did that, conducted some research and then came to the conclusion that the painting was indeed a Trovato.
00:36:44This was in spite of the fact that you knew what Trovato Bacchus was hanging in the collection of the Duke de Severan?
00:36:50Oh, well, yes, I'd seen that there all right, but that didn't strike me as significant.
00:36:54Artists often treat the same theme more than once.
00:36:56There could have been two Bacchus paintings.
00:36:58So once you'd made up your mind that the picture was a classic work, what did you decide to do with it?
00:37:04Sell it.
00:37:05Why was that?
00:37:07I'm a painter, not a collector.
00:37:09Collectors are rich people.
00:37:11I need money to get on with the art.
00:37:14They spend it to finance what people like me do.
00:37:16It's the balance of nature or something.
00:37:19I didn't see why I shouldn't cash in on my find.
00:37:22Old Ben wouldn't have minded.
00:37:24Old Ben?
00:37:26Benedetto, Benedetto Trovato, he would have approved.
00:37:29Who then did you approach to sell the picture?
00:37:32Well, no one immediately.
00:37:35Er, I decided it would be better to wait until I met up with someone who'd be prepared to take the painting privately.
00:37:42There are such people.
00:37:44And they're invariably loaded.
00:37:46Why were you so averse to going to dealers, Miss Starkey?
00:37:50I simply thought it would be better to operate on the choir.
00:37:54I thought there'd be tax to pay on the painting.
00:37:57Did you set the figure of £20,000 that Mr Lander eventually paid for the picture?
00:38:02Or did he suggest it?
00:38:04Oh, I didn't haggle, if that's what you mean.
00:38:06I simply said I wanted something near the going price.
00:38:09I believe at £20,000 Mr Lander thought he was winning.
00:38:12Miss Starkey, during the grape harvest of two seasons ago,
00:38:16why did you take casual work on the Duke de Severan's estates?
00:38:21To get a good look at the old boy's art collection.
00:38:24That was your exact reason.
00:38:26Sure, why not?
00:38:27Grasping old devil, sitting on all those paintings as though they were nickel shares or premium bonds.
00:38:33I'd describe myself as a school teacher so that nobody would get suspicious
00:38:36and arm myself with a camera to take a record of my trip like any determined tourist.
00:38:40Couldn't your attitude be described as a little anarchistic?
00:38:43I hope so. The Duke's, after all, a little fascist.
00:38:46You can't own great art, you know.
00:38:48Money gives you the safe keeping of it for a little while, but that's all.
00:38:51Imagine how you'd feel if someone bought up the Sistine Chapel and made it into a private salon.
00:38:56People who think that sort of thing is possible deserve only content from the rest of the world. Defiance.
00:39:04Miss Starkey, would you regard yourself as a successful painter?
00:39:08No, I would not.
00:39:10My sales down the years have been modest to say the least.
00:39:13As a good painter then?
00:39:15Well that's for others to say, isn't it?
00:39:17Well it would seem that others have already said it, I'm afraid.
00:39:20You've never in fact attracted critical favour, have you?
00:39:24Neither did Gauguin his time or Cezanne.
00:39:27The same faults, or supposed faults, are complained of time and time again in relation to your painting.
00:39:33Now would you tell the court what those faults are?
00:39:38The critics...
00:39:40The critics say my basic technique isn't up to much.
00:39:43They talk of an absence of line. They're fools of course, but they criticise my draftsmanship.
00:39:48Your draftsmanship?
00:39:49Yes it's funny they always seem to pick that out.
00:39:51I think they call it unprofessional.
00:39:53Your unprofessional draftsmanship. Thank you Miss Starkey.
00:39:59I'm calling your attention to exhibit one once more Miss Starkey.
00:40:02As your own counsel has pointed out, it's been testified that this painting is of modern origin.
00:40:06Do you dispute this?
00:40:08Oh no I can't, can I?
00:40:09I mean should I? I'm not an expert on that sort of thing.
00:40:12Don't you seriously ask us to believe that you acquired such a painting in a job lot of canvases that were being chucked out of an old Venetian church?
00:40:20Yes.
00:40:22Miss Starkey, what on earth was that painting doing there?
00:40:27I don't know. I simply came into possession of it that way.
00:40:31A forger expends a great deal of time and trouble producing this canvas.
00:40:35And it's an elaborate forgery we've been told.
00:40:37Have you been subjected to certain baking processes that simulate age?
00:40:41And then he simply abandons it to the junk room of a decrepit church?
00:40:46Doesn't sound very likely does it?
00:40:48How do I know what sounds likely and what doesn't?
00:40:50It happens to be the way I found the painting.
00:40:53The forger just dumped it?
00:40:55You honestly believe that?
00:40:57What does it matter what I honestly believe?
00:40:59Because you're asking the jury to believe it too Miss Starkey and they won't.
00:41:02Unless you somehow convince them you're telling the truth.
00:41:05You wanted a secret sale of the painting in order to avoid certain taxation?
00:41:14Partly yes.
00:41:16But I'm going to wish that I'd never mention the whole business.
00:41:19I thought there'd be capital gains tax.
00:41:22If you had to do it again in other words you'd allow a public sale?
00:41:26Possibly yes I suppose so.
00:41:27You're asking the jury to believe that too?
00:41:29What?
00:41:30You insisted on secrecy for tax reason.
00:41:32Yes.
00:41:33Did you consult an accountant?
00:41:35No I'd never consult an accountant.
00:41:37If you were worried about tax all you had to do was consult an accountant wasn't it?
00:41:41And you didn't?
00:41:43Oh come on Miss Starkey.
00:41:44You required secrecy because you knew if that painting ever reached the light of day it would be marked as a forgery.
00:41:49No that's not right.
00:41:51When you were discovered by Signor Sforza in the picture gallery of the Duke de Severo you had a camera with you.
00:41:56Yes that's right.
00:41:57This was to keep a record of my trip.
00:42:00Like any determined tourist.
00:42:02Yes.
00:42:03You intended the remark as a joke no doubt.
00:42:05No why should I?
00:42:06Again you're asking the jury to believe it?
00:42:08Mr Lotterby if you intend to go on suggesting that everything I...
00:42:10I do Miss Starkey I suggest that you took a photograph of the Duke Stravato and that the painting you sold was copied from that photograph.
00:42:16I only took photographs of the pictures that interested me.
00:42:21Was the Bacchus among them?
00:42:22I don't know I can't remember.
00:42:23What happened to the photographs?
00:42:24Mr Sforza destroyed some.
00:42:25And the others?
00:42:26Because there were others weren't there?
00:42:27I lost them before I got home.
00:42:29Lost them?
00:42:30How?
00:42:31I don't know one day they were there the next day they weren't.
00:42:33Did you lose anything else?
00:42:34No I don't think so.
00:42:35So these photographs were the only things you lost?
00:42:37How unfortunate.
00:42:39Incidentally just how bad is your draftsmanship?
00:42:41Draftsmanship?
00:42:42We've heard evil things about it but you've eked out some sort of a living out of painting.
00:42:45down the years haven't you?
00:42:47Not without outside jobs.
00:42:48Your work is below standard though.
00:42:49No.
00:42:50You regard yourself as a professional draftsman.
00:42:52Well.
00:42:53Don't you?
00:42:54Yes.
00:42:55And you are aren't you?
00:42:56Because it was you Miss Starkey using the photographs you say you lost who forged that painting.
00:43:02No no it was not.
00:43:04I found it in Venice as I've already told you.
00:43:08Thank you Miss Starkey.
00:43:09We'll return to the dock.
00:43:18Your Honor.
00:43:19I now have a note to inform me that my next witness has arrived from Geneva in good time after all.
00:43:24I therefore would like to call Gustave de Montalc.
00:43:29Gustave de Montalc please.
00:43:47Roman Catholic.
00:43:48Take the Bible in your right hand and read the words written on the counter.
00:43:51I swear by almighty God that the evidence I shall give shall be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
00:43:58Are you Gustave de Montalc of 8 Boulevard Ponty, Geneva?
00:44:03Well of course I am.
00:44:05What are your academic qualifications as an art dealer and expert?
00:44:10Well I happen to have a list here.
00:44:12I'm a graduate of and special lecturer in fine arts at Geneva University.
00:44:16Curator of the 27th institute, the Beaux-Arts.
00:44:20Visiting lecturer to the Amsterdam Academy of Renaissance Paintings.
00:44:24I received a Carlos Medici medal from Florence University.
00:44:26Thank you Mr de Montalc.
00:44:27You need not go on.
00:44:28I'm sure the jury are now sufficiently informed of your qualifications.
00:44:31Mr de Montalc.
00:44:33Let me thank you first for having made the arduous journey to get here.
00:44:37I'm sure we're all deeply grateful.
00:44:38Nonsense dear young lady.
00:44:39Who could resist so delightful an invitation.
00:44:42Or so delicious a case at law.
00:44:45Now Mr de Montalc you will observe two paintings in court today marked respectably Exhibit 1 and Exhibit 2.
00:44:52Yes.
00:44:53Could you please inspect these paintings and give us your comments on them.
00:44:56We're interested in anything you can tell us about age, authenticity and so on.
00:45:02I understand.
00:45:26Yes, this is the painting which has hung for a number of years now in the collection of my valued, if eccentric friend, Le Duc de Severin.
00:45:32I have some papers relating to this painting which might be of interest to this court.
00:45:38They are the results of the secret analysis I personally conducted some time ago.
00:45:44Under near felonious conditions, I must say.
00:45:45My tests prove beyond a shadow of a doubt.
00:45:46I have a doubt.
00:45:47I have a doubt.
00:45:48I have a doubt.
00:45:49I have a doubt.
00:45:50That this painting is a forgery.
00:45:51This is the painting which has hung for a number of years now in the collection of my valued, if eccentric friend, Le Duc de Severin.
00:45:56I have a doubt.
00:45:57I have some papers relating to this painting which might be of interest to this court.
00:46:01They are the results of the secret analysis I personally conducted some time ago.
00:46:06Under near felonious conditions, I must say.
00:46:11My tests prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this painting is a forgery.
00:46:26But I always knew that somewhere there was an original and that someday it would come to light.
00:46:33Obviously, I had no reason to talk about it before.
00:46:36And now, at last, here it is, unmistakably, the true Bacchus of Benedetto Trovato.
00:47:06The process of the Queen versus Starkey will be resumed tomorrow in the Crown Court.
00:47:36The trial of Alice Starkey, British landscape artist and portrait painter, took a sensational turn this morning.
00:47:43Accused of obtaining £20,000 by deception from Walter Lander, the wealthy American collector,
00:47:49for a painting purporting to be the Bacchus of Benedetto Trovato,
00:47:53Miss Starkey has testified that she sold the painting in good faith,
00:47:56having acquired it in a job lot of canvases during a tour of Italy.
00:48:00She has also stated that although she knew of the Bacchus hanging in the collection of the Duc de Severin,
00:48:06she had thought her discovery merely another rendering of the theme by the same artist.
00:48:11Quentin Brooke, a leading art critic, seconded by Arthur James Goody, an art expert,
00:48:17dismissed Miss Starkey's painting as an obvious forgery.
00:48:21But now, Gustave de Montalc, a world authority called by the defence,
00:48:26has turned the tables by giving evidence that tests carried out by him
00:48:29showed that the Bacchus of the Duc de Severin is in fact a forgery.
00:48:34The Bacchus of the Duc de Severin
00:48:59Mr. de Montalc, I now have a few questions of a rather different nature for you.
00:49:04Of course, dear young lady.
00:49:06Would you say that it is very difficult to tell a Trovato painting for certain?
00:49:11Difficult?
00:49:13Well, yes, I suppose it is.
00:49:15Why is that, do you think?
00:49:16Well, of all post-Titian painters of Venice,
00:49:19he has the most elusive style.
00:49:21There could be little error with Titian himself or many another disciple,
00:49:25but with Trovato, yes, mistakes could quite easily be made.
00:49:29Would you be surprised to learn you'd made a mistake yourself, Mr de Montalc?
00:49:33I beg your pardon?
00:49:37I'm asking you, can the expert be deceived with a painter like Trovato?
00:49:41Oh, yes, patently.
00:49:43For example, everyone of significance thought that Exhibit 2
00:49:47was a genuine Trovato when the Severin acquired it.
00:49:50Had I not followed up a certain suspicion of my own
00:49:54and obtained proof to the contrary,
00:49:56I might have arrived at that conclusion myself.
00:49:58And where the expert can be deceived,
00:50:00a person of lesser knowledge has had very little chance of knowing.
00:50:03That would be my judgment, yes.
00:50:06Thank you, Mr de Montalc.
00:50:10Now, to eliminate all possible confusion, Mr de Montalc,
00:50:14you say Exhibit 2, the property of the Duke de Severin, is a forgery
00:50:19and Exhibit 1 is the true Trovato.
00:50:22Is that right?
00:50:23My tests prove that Exhibit 2 is a forgery of recent origin, too.
00:50:29Quite, but do they prove that Exhibit 1 is a true Trovato?
00:50:35I'm sorry, I'm afraid I don't quite understand.
00:50:37Now, you tell us certain suspicions of your own cause you
00:50:40to have a secret analysis carried out of Exhibit 2
00:50:43when it hung in the Duke de Severin's collection.
00:50:45Now, what were these suspicions?
00:50:47Well, I was a bit bothered by what I might describe
00:50:50as an absence of patrician assurance in the painting.
00:50:55An absence of patrician assurance?
00:50:57Yes, you see, Trovato was very much a painter of his time and place.
00:51:01He accepted elegance and a certain defeatness
00:51:05as normal and natural to human life.
00:51:09Now, the Bacchus, in Exhibit 1 there,
00:51:13is a pastoral figure, but there's nothing open-air about him,
00:51:16if you know what I mean.
00:51:18He's really just a lazy, rather soft young man of Venice
00:51:23who happens to have taken off all his gorgeous clothes.
00:51:28No, in this painting we get a tribute to the delicate,
00:51:35the cosseted, the dissipated.
00:51:39It was precisely because Exhibit 2, I found no signs of this.
00:51:45The moment I saw it, it seemed to lack all these characteristics
00:51:49that I suspected it.
00:51:51And as events have demonstrated, I was completely right.
00:51:56No, Exhibit 1 is the genuine Trovato.
00:52:01Mr. de Montauk, now is the time, I think, to tell you
00:52:03that an expert technical analysis of the painting Exhibit 1
00:52:06is already before the court, proving it to be a modern forgery.
00:52:10I beg your pardon?
00:52:14I'm afraid it's so.
00:52:16I request the witness to be shown the papers marked Exhibit 3.
00:52:32But this is impossible.
00:52:34Why was I not informed of this when I arrived?
00:52:37Well, the court is dealing in a difficult and imprecise area,
00:52:40Mr. de Montauk.
00:52:41The uninfluenced opinion of expert witnesses
00:52:44is of primary importance to it.
00:52:47Both paintings are forgeries?
00:52:50So it would seem.
00:52:52I know if there's a question.
00:52:54I have no re-examination, Your Honor.
00:52:57You may stand down then, Mr. de Montauk.
00:53:01It's impossible.
00:53:05Impossible.
00:53:07Mr. Lotterby, perhaps at this point you would wish to call a further expert witness.
00:53:20No, Your Honor.
00:53:21I don't feel any true purpose could be served by that.
00:53:24Frankly, the two world experts on Trovato are, or were,
00:53:28Mr. Brooke and Mr. de Montauk.
00:53:30Yes, I'm inclined to agree with you.
00:53:32Thus, we now have the position where the accused is alleged to have sold for gain
00:53:37the forgery of a painting which is in itself a forgery.
00:53:42That is, if there is any genuine Trovato backers at all.
00:53:47However, the question still remains whether, or not,
00:53:52Miss Starkey knew that the painting she sold was not by Trovato.
00:53:59Miss Tate.
00:54:00Oh, Your Honor, if I may crave the court's indulgence for just one moment, please.
00:54:05Your Honor, with the court's permission, I should like to recall the accused to the witness box, Miss Alice Starkey.
00:54:25Very well, Miss Tate, if you so wish.
00:54:37May I hope that it is with the intention of shedding a little light on our darkness?
00:54:41I trust so, Your Honor.
00:54:43I must remind you that you're still under oath, Miss Starkey.
00:54:45Yes.
00:54:47Actually, I wanted to make a kind of statement. Is that allowed?
00:54:50A statement?
00:54:52Well, explanation.
00:54:54Something...
00:54:56Well, you see,
00:54:57I knew it might happen that both these paintings would be shown to be forgeries here in court.
00:55:01I knew that, but
00:55:03so long as it didn't happen, I thought it would be in my best interest to keep quiet about it.
00:55:07Now that it has,
00:55:10I'm obliged to talk.
00:55:14Perhaps you'd better tell us what you mean, Miss Starkey.
00:55:16Yes.
00:55:18I've never had much luck as a painter, you know.
00:55:20From the beginning, the critics jumped on me.
00:55:22Weakness of line, absence of technique, everything you've heard earlier and more.
00:55:27But the odd thing is,
00:55:29the one real talent I had in art, they never even knew about.
00:55:32I thought you were going to tell us something about the paintings in court.
00:55:35I am, I am.
00:55:36I'm a superb copyist, you see.
00:55:39I found that out in my student days.
00:55:41Put a Rembrandt, a Van Gogh, almost anything up before me and I can reproduce it.
00:55:46Take it down like shorthand.
00:55:47That gift for artistic mimicry that Quentin Brooke talked about.
00:55:51Something you're just born with.
00:55:53Well, one day in Venice, about ten years ago, I was copying some Titians just for practice.
00:56:01And by chance I've just been reading up about Van Maegren.
00:56:04You remember Van Maegren.
00:56:05Miss Starkey.
00:56:06It's very important, honestly.
00:56:07Van Maegren was the Dutch artist who, after the war, was accused of collaborating with the enemy
00:56:12because he'd handed over some Vermeers to top Nazis.
00:56:15Only, in fact, he'd forged the paintings himself to keep the real Vermeers out of Nazi hands.
00:56:21His techniques of ageing paint and so on were so precise as to fool all the art experts of the time.
00:56:28Only, when I studied them, they didn't strike me at all difficult.
00:56:35I altered my Titian copy from the original in various particulars
00:56:40and, in fact, subjected it to the whole Van Maegren process.
00:56:44And that's the painting you see there that's hung in the Duke de Severin's gallery for the last seven years.
00:56:50Just for a name, I signed it. Benedetto Travato.
00:56:59Now, just a minute, Miss Starkey.
00:57:02Are you telling us that, in fact, you painted Exhibit 2
00:57:06and attached a false name to it?
00:57:09Yes.
00:57:11I painted all the existing Travatos at one time or another.
00:57:16Exhibit 1 here was my latest, a repeat of my first, which was rather silly yet.
00:57:23Mr Goody told you it's a gift of a special sort.
00:57:26It wasn't the kind of talent anybody would give me much credit for, you see, but I needed to use it.
00:57:31How on earth was I to know fools of critics would start talking about Travato as though he'd really existed?
00:57:37I didn't do the paintings for money.
00:57:39There wasn't anybody who would have paid tuppence for them.
00:57:42I just chucked them out afterwards.
00:57:45But they began to be discovered.
00:57:48Then you are the painter Travato.
00:57:51I am.
00:57:53Are you quite serious?
00:57:57The name itself is a bit of a giveaway.
00:58:00The name?
00:58:02There's an old Italian proverb which means, if it is not true, at least it is well thought out.
00:58:09Si non è vero, è ben trovato.
00:58:16Ben trovato.
00:58:19Exactly.
00:58:20Benedetta ha trovato.
00:58:22Feldman will.
00:58:25Buttfair Mosque.
00:58:27Stearh.
00:58:28Mir vulnerable.
00:58:43Scott Gerh interv vent of London.
00:58:46Miss Starkey, I cannot accept your belated and convenient confession of wholesale deception.
00:58:50sale deception. you say you painted all the paintings by Benedetto Travato?
00:58:56there aren't all that many of them. only six. scattered all over the world. you set as an
00:59:01impossible task Miss Starkey. what do you mean by that? he thought very fast. both
00:59:05paintings shown to be forgeries in court. very well cease to pretend you'd acted
00:59:08innocently in selling the painting to Mr Lander. admit full knowledge. admit much
00:59:12more in fact. so much that the entire issue becomes confused and the charge
00:59:15against you will no longer stand. that's a lie. you've no right to say things like
00:59:18that. you painted all the Travato paintings and yet until the Exhibit 1
00:59:21which you sold to Mr Lander may dot a penny out of them. yes. you expect the court
00:59:26to believe that? look it's the way it was. critics like Quentin Brooke were saying
00:59:32that my painting wasn't worth a tin of fish. so I did the Travatos. five of them
00:59:37at different times over a period of two years. then I chucked them out. and you
00:59:42simply couldn't believe it when they began to be discovered. no. they were all
00:59:46variations of famous Titians. I didn't suppose anybody'd be deceived for a
00:59:50minute. well at first I was amused but then later when people began to write
00:59:55about Travato and then actually to buy him I got annoyed. last year when the
01:00:00Travato John the Baptist went for thirty two and a half thousand I decided that
01:00:04was the end. well everybody was making money out of Travato except me and I was
01:00:07Travato. so I decided to have a go myself and jump on the bandwagon. yes Miss Starkey?
01:00:12only to my surprise I found out I'd forgotten how it went. forgotten how it
01:00:17went? Travato. his style. it had been seven years or more since I'd painted one. I had
01:00:22to get another look at his work. ah now this is where the Duke de Severay and his
01:00:26private collection enter the murky plot. well it's obvious isn't it? his was the
01:00:29only Travato in Europe. so I went to Provence. got a temporary job on the
01:00:33estate as you've heard and found my way into the gallery with a camera. took some
01:00:36holiday snaps. I needed them even with photographs to help. I was too nervous to
01:00:41try anything new. I just did the Bacchus all over again and that I suppose is
01:00:49what's led to all this. well it's a fascinating story Miss Starkey. you're
01:00:56expecting us to believe you painted not just one Travato but all of them. you
01:01:00were willing enough to believe that I'd painted at least one before. you had a
01:01:03motive for that. a 20,000 pound motive. but to suggest you painted all of them and for
01:01:09nothing. it's the truth. thank you Miss Starkey.
01:01:15Miss Starkey why did you not tell this court that you were responsible for
01:01:19painting all the Travato's paintings? because I didn't think I'd be believed.
01:01:25you appreciated then that your story strained credibility? yes. and that is why
01:01:31you didn't even tell me your counsel. yes. now it has been suggested that you
01:01:36invented the story at the last moment because you saw a loophole. is this
01:01:42suggestion true? no. but I am now told the court is the truth. I don't mind leading
01:01:49people up the garden path a bit so to speak but when it gets to the kind of
01:01:53insanity. both Quentin Brooke and Amanteau are talking. I have to speak out. I painted
01:02:01them all. thank you Miss Starkey. thank you Miss Starkey you may return to the dock. now
01:02:13before calling for summing up I find I would like clarification on one point of
01:02:18evidence. now I would learned counsel object if I put a leading if I put a
01:02:23question to the prosecution witness Mr. Arthur Goody. I have no objection Your
01:02:29Honour. no I Your Honour. Mr. Goody please.
01:02:38now Mr. Goody is it at all possible to tell if the two paintings that we see here in
01:02:44court today are by the same hand? by the same hand well. no the accused now claims
01:02:51to have painted all the Travato canvases. now is it possible is there any way in
01:02:57which we could be certain that these two canvases here for example were both
01:03:01painted by the same artist? no no Your Honour I don't believe it is. no? no if the
01:03:08brushwork was very distinctive it might be possible to make the sort of comparison
01:03:12you'd like but I didn't find any identifying techniques in my
01:03:17examination. yes yes I see. thank you Mr. Goody you may stand down.
01:03:29Mr. Lotterby. Your Honour ladies and gentlemen of the jury. throughout this trial the
01:03:37accused Alice Starkey has lied from having asked you to believe she
01:03:41painted no supposed Travato paintings she now asked you to believe she painted
01:03:44them all. let's examine her claim. firstly if she had painted all the known
01:03:51Travatos how did she not sell them also for profit? one painting by Travato of
01:03:58John the Baptist we're told was sold for over thirty thousand pounds but she got
01:04:01nothing from the sale she'd simply chucked it away. secondly doesn't it seem strange that she
01:04:11should find it necessary to go to all the trouble of finding work in the Duke de
01:04:14Severan's vineyard posing as a school teacher and then breaking into the Duke's
01:04:19well-guarded picture gallery in order to photograph her own painting.
01:04:26Ms. Starkey says she is a superb copyist but the paintings of Benedetto Travato are all
01:04:33individual works on different subjects not copies of existing paintings the only
01:04:40copy we know of is the one the accused sold to Walter Lander for twenty thousand
01:04:44pounds knowing it to be a forgery. finally ladies and gentlemen I ask you to
01:04:50consider this if the accused is truly Benedetto Travato why did she not speak
01:04:56out earlier? well before the trial in fact and avoided charges altogether.
01:05:03no ladies and gentlemen I I put it to you that Miss Starkey has attempted to
01:05:09deceive her own counsel as well as Walter Lander. do not let her deceive you.
01:05:13I suggest that you treat her ruse with the contempt it deserves and find her
01:05:19guilty as charged.
01:05:26ladies and gentlemen of the jury first consider this Alice Starkey did not need
01:05:33to make this public confession that she was the painter Travato. at the time she
01:05:38spoke out the case was going decidedly well for her but it was the
01:05:43gullibility of the art critics that forced her to speak. now we've heard from
01:05:50the art restorer Arthur Goody of a special sort of gift which he clearly
01:05:55recognized and Quentin Brooke in spite of his obvious distaste for Miss Starkey's
01:06:01work admitted that her painting was on the surface unquestionably clever but more
01:06:07importantly that she had a gift for artistic mimicry and copying. small wonder
01:06:14that after years of frustration as a legitimate artist Alice Starkey should
01:06:19again turn to the one thing that she had a particular if not unique talent for
01:06:24copying. now with regard to the painter Benedetto Travato ladies and gentlemen of the jury will
01:06:30please consider the following. first where have all the canvases the Travato
01:06:38canvases been for the last hundred years? two why is there so little information of
01:06:46the painter Travato himself when his so-called master Titian is adequately well
01:06:51documented and three the name Benedetto Travato it is not unknown for painters to offer their work under an assumed name and this is what Miss Starkey did she knew that her work was not vero true but it was well thought out Ben Trovato and it is this explanation given by Miss Starkey herself
01:07:21that surely is too much of a coincidence not to indicate that she and Travato are one and the same person and you must therefore conclude members of the jury that Alice Starkey is not guilty of the charges against her
01:07:36members of the jury
01:07:43the issue before you is now a very simple one
01:07:48the accused is charged with obtaining twenty thousand pounds
01:07:54by falsely representing that the painting exhibit one
01:07:58was painted by the artist Benedetto Travato
01:08:01now there is no doubt that she received the money
01:08:03but in the course of the trial
01:08:05she claimed that all the paintings attributed to Travato
01:08:09were by her
01:08:10in other words that she is the artist Benedetto Travato
01:08:13now
01:08:14the question we have to ask ourselves is this
01:08:17has the prosecution proved
01:08:21beyond all reasonable doubt
01:08:24that the paintings attributed to Travato
01:08:27were painted by somebody other than Miss Starkey
01:08:32in other words has the prosecution proved
01:08:34that Miss Starkey
01:08:36is not Benedetto Travato
01:08:39now
01:08:40as you've heard we have no
01:08:42conclusive technical evidence
01:08:44but if you think that she did not paint all these paintings
01:08:48and that she is not the artist Benedetto Travato
01:08:52then she is guilty of the offence with which she is charged
01:08:56but if you think that she did paint all the Travato paintings
01:09:00then
01:09:01in law she is not guilty of deception
01:09:04in obtaining the twenty thousand pounds from Mr. Lander
01:09:07and you must return a verdict of not guilty
01:09:10I will now retire
01:09:13and consider your verdict
01:09:15all stand
01:09:30ladies and gentlemen of the jury
01:09:31have you considered your verdict?
01:09:33we have
01:09:34do you find the defendant guilty or not guilty?
01:09:37we find her not guilty
01:09:38and that is the verdict of you all?
01:09:40it is
01:09:44I am deeply sorry that the court's time has been wasted with a case like this
01:09:50as counsel for the prosecution told you in his summing up
01:09:53criminal charges could have been entirely avoided
01:09:56if the accused had spoken earlier
01:09:59Alice Starkey
01:10:01you are free to go
01:10:03court will rise
01:10:05and that is of course
01:10:10the verdict of the jury
01:10:11for the jury
01:10:12having a confession
01:10:13it is
01:10:15that there is
01:10:17who is
01:10:18for the jury
01:10:19and is
01:10:22for the jury
01:10:23the jury
01:10:24for the jury
01:10:25and
01:10:26for the jury
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