An episode of the BBC One documentary series Fake or Fortune? that aired on July 23 confirmed that a previously unattributed artwork was in fact painted by the 18th century Scottish artist Katherine Read. The painting belongs to Mary-Louise Wedderburn, a retired accountant who inherited it from her uncle 20 years ago.
Wedderburn presented the gold-framed painting—a portrait of a young Indian woman with a languid expression, wearing several strands of pearl necklaces and a large emerald pendant—wrapped in a sleeping bag. According to the BBC, their research team wasn’t going in complete cold: Wedderburn had an inkling that it could be by Read, who was a distant relative. The painting is estimated to be worth approximately $130,000.
