Fake Or Fortune comes to the Cooper Gallery

Did you catch the recent TV programme, Fake or Fortune on BBC1 recently which featured the Cooper Gallery? The presenters viewed sketches purchased by Samuel Joshua Cooper and to view Mr Cooper’s notebook as part of an investigation into a work possibly by French artist, Jean Leon Gerome.

Samuel Joshua Cooper and his wife, Fanny, visited Paris for 2 months each year from 1873 onwards, where they purchased pictures, sculptures and furniture which formed the basis of the Cooper Gallery collection.

This includes four artworks by Gerome as well as a notebook kept by Samuel Joshua Cooper where he kept receipts and records of all his purchases.

We won’t spoil the surprise by revealing the outcome in case you still have the programme to watch, but you can find out more about the Gerome artworks in this Barnsley Museums blog. 

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