Finders Keepers with BBC Fake or Fortune's Philip Mould

FINDERS KEEPERS | MASTERS & MUSES | WORLD OF CABANA

As an eminent art dealer and host of the BBC series Fake or Fortune, Philip Mould knows a thing or two about the power and mystery of works of art. He talks Camilla Frances through two exceptional pieces - an incredibly rare find that was the “making of him" and a dynamic painting he hopes to keep forever.

INTERVIEW BY CAMILLA FRANCES | MASTERS & MUSES | 24 MAY 2025

Exterior shot of the Pall Mall Philip Mould Gallery in London, with windows featuring the current 'Cedric Morris' exhibition © Philip Mould Gallery

My Greatest Find: Portrait of Prince Arthur, first heir to the Tudor throne  

"I’d never have imagined that an historic portrait of a 14-year-old boy - who died the following year - would be the making of me, transforming my future and shaping my career. But that’s exactly what happened. This was no ordinary boy though.

"In the early days of my business, I specialized in historical portraits. I loved doing the detective work to hunt down paintings and find living descendants who'd buy them. One day, while browsing auctions, I spotted an intriguing portrait. It was listed as a late 16th-century portrait of Prince Arthur, the older brother of King Henry VIII. I began looking into it and realized there were no other secure portraits of Arthur from his lifetime.

"My hunch was that, if genuine, this could be very interesting. So, I bought it for around £10,000. I carried out more research with historians, genealogists, and restorers, and managed to date it with confidence. It was, in fact, painted in the late 15th century, making it one of the earliest English easel portraits.

"Further research proved this was the only contemporaneous portrait of the first heir to the Tudor throne; Arthur would have been king before Henry VIII had he not died in 1502, aged just 15, a year after being forced into an arranged marriage to Catherine of Aragon. It was a small painting with additions around it because someone had obviously tried to hang it—it’s likely this was commissioned as a wedding portrait.

Philip's Greatest Find: A rare portrait of Prince Arthur (15th century), the first heir to the Tudor throne, now hanging in Hever Castle, Kent.

"It was such an exciting moment—to know you have the only one of something and are looking at a portrait that would once have been in the hands of Henry VIII. It was an incredible find, so there was a great deal of interest. I eventually sold it to a body-building American bonds dealer—a great mountain of a man with a huge intellect.

"He was a passionate historian and wanted to own a piece of crucial English history. He recognized the significance of his acquisition and loaned it to the National Portrait Gallery. It has since changed hands and now hangs proudly at Hever Castle in Kent.

"This portrait was the making of me. Not only does it represent an extraordinarily rare early image of an important historical figure, but Prince Arthur became the bricks and mortar of my life and collateral for business. I won’t reveal what I sold him for, but it was enough for me to put down a deposit on the home in Kensington, where I live to this day. So, it was definitely the best investment I ever made. It also led me to write two books, Sleepers and Sleuth, and eventually have the idea for the BBC television show, Fake or Fortune. Every historic painting has the potential to be a high-jeopardy treasure hunt."

The piece Philip hopes to keep forever: Dancers by Duncan Grant (c.1910-11)

My Keeper: Dancers by Duncan Grant (c.1910-11)

"An art dealer saying they’ll keep something forever is a bit like an election promise, but with that caveat, there is certainly something I hope to keep forever. After spending my career trying to explain the emotional power of a painting, I never thought I’d be so prosaic as to say, “if something works well on your wall and does something atmospherically to a room, that in itself is significant,” but in this case it really is.

When this painting—Dancers by Duncan Grant—first arrived, I put it on my wall at home rather than take it into the gallery. It had an immediate impact. It introduced this feeling of dynamism, movement, and beauty that has really defined the space.

"Although I still love portraits—and strongly believe they are some of the most compelling works humans have ever produced—this painting is an example of a work of art that does a lot more than 95% of the portraits I’ve dealt with. These magnificent dancers are holding hands, and they are moving. Movement, or a sense of movement, has always been inherent in great Old Master portraiture—Van Dyck and Gainsborough often created a sense that the subject was just lingering in the space long enough to be painted before moving on—but here you have something which is, literally, dynamic.

"Our room now seems to be swept up in the painting’s colorful vortex of movement. The colors are both subtle and bold somehow, and things in the room seem to connect with them—cushions, chairs, gilt frames around pictures.

"Why do I love the painting itself? It’s looking both forward and back, which I find very satisfying. The circle of figures goes back to Roman and Renaissance murals and paintings, and there’s something about the way they stand that is evocative of Pre-Raphaelite painting. Duncan Grant, who we know had a piety towards the history of British art, also traveled and loved Italian art.

"In this painting, he is looking back, but he’s also just visited Matisse where he saw La Danse, again, a big circle of dancers. It’s the most perfect fusion of Renaissance continuity, British conditioning—in the form of the Pre-Raphaelites—and the electric jolt of modernism that he’s just encountered through Matisse. I find it emotionally, art historically, and decoratively compelling. It just properly works on every level."