Fortune accused of FAKERY! Viewers spot iPlayer has mysteriously NOT uploaded some of the show’s most embarrassing gaffes when hosts Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould wrongly believed the forgery was genuine art

Eagle-eyed viewers of the BBC’s long running Fake or Fortune presented Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould were stunned this week to find that several episodes containing some of the show’s more high-profile gaffes were missing from BBC iPlayer. 

The programme, which sees Bruce and Mould work with art collectors to ascertain whether their pieces are genuine or fake, has been a ratings hit for the Beeb but there have been several mistakes incorporated into episodes. 

In 2015, Fiona and the team famously tracked down an original Winston Churchill oil canvas painting only to conclude the episode on the understanding it was a fake. 

The painting, which was owned by Charles Henty, depicted a picturesque scene of a medieval village in the south of France. 

It was discovered in the coalhole of Charles’ family home in London (which had once been owned by Churchill’s daughter, Sarah) in the 1960s and was painted in Churchill’s style but had never been authenticated.

The presenters failed to authenticate a genuine Winston Churchill painting 

Episodes where gaffes occured have seemingly been removed from BBC iPlayer

After tracking down the village of St-Paul-de-Vence, Fiona and art expert Mould tried in vain to authenticate the sunny image with collector David Coombes stating categorically that he did not think the picture was by Winston Churchill. 

Five years later, British artist Paul Rafferty uncovered a ‘smoking gun’ in the form of a thumbnail photograph Churchill painting the scene leading for the painting to be authenticated. 

Just a year before the episode aired,  a Churchill painting sold at Sotheby’s for £1.8 million. 

Also omitted from iPlayer is Fiona and Phillip’s celebration of a dawb painted ‘mainly by Lucian Freud.’ 

The episode, which aired in 2016, saw Fiona and Phillip strive to authenticate the mawkish character as a Freud original despite the artist categorically denying he ever painted it. 

Eventually, the Fake or Fortune team was able to get a panel of experts to agree that it was ‘mostly done by Freud’.  

Also omitted from iPlayer is Fiona and Phillip’s celebration of a dawb painted ‘mainly by Lucian Freud’

Another famous episodes in which the presenters authenticated a Monet painting which was later confirmed as a fake has also not been uploaded to the platform

In the 2011 episode, the team battled to have the Bords de la Seine à Argenteuil authenticated as an original Claude Monet only for them to be refused by the Wildenstein Institute

One of the most famous episodes in which the presenters authenticated a Monet painting which was later confirmed as a fake has also not been uploaded to the platform. 

In the 2011 episode, the team battled to have the Bords de la Seine à Argenteuil authenticated as an original Claude Monet only for them to be refused by the  Wildenstein Institute. 

None of series 1 of the program has been uploaded to BBC iPlayer.