A collection of Russian modern art worth millions. But is it fake? - BBC World Service Documentaries

Over the past twenty years, dozens of paintings from a private collection of Russian and Ukrainian modern art have been sold to museums and private collectors around the world. Click here to subscribe to our channel 👉🏽 https://bbc.in/3VyyriM The collection is said to include over 200 oil paintings by revered avant-garde artists like El Lissitzky, Alexandra Exter, and Liubov Popova. It’s one of the biggest collections of its kind in the world. But there are growing suspicions that the story behind the provenance of the paintings in the collection is made up, and that many of them could be worthless fakes. The BBC follows the art detectives and scientists, trying to get to the truth about the Zaks collection and its mysterious owner. The BBC’s Grigor Atanesian investigates. 00:00 Introduction 02:14 A fascination with Russian modern art 03:24 The importance of the Russian avant-garde 07:44 The Zaks collection 10:17 Collectors of the avant-garde 14:28 The 'Lissitsky', or is it? 15:52 The world's leading expert on Lissitsky 20:06 Why provenance is so important in the art world 30:42 Will AI prove it's a fake? 38:56 Looking for Leonid Zaks 41:47 A surprise phone call 44:41 An important lesson for buyers 46:20 Museums react 48:40 The ‘expert’ opinion behind some of the works 57:06 'It's all a bit dirty' To watch more investigative journalism from our award-winning teams check out this documentary playlist, perfect for the biggest screen in your home 👉🏽 All BBC World Service Documentaries ---------------- This is the official BBC World Service YouTube channel. If you like what we do, you can also find us here: Instagram 👉🏽 Instagram: bbcworldservice Twitter 👉🏽 Twitter: bbcworldservice Facebook 👉🏽 Facebook: bbcworldservice BBC World Service website 👉🏽 https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldserviceradio Thanks for watching and subscribing! #BBCWorldService #WorldService #Art #FakeArt #Russia #Ukraine