Disputed Lucian Freud portrait to be exhibited for first time since BBC authentication

His solicitor subsequently told BBC Fake of Fortune? in 2016 that, during a phone call in 2006, the artist had said that he had started the painting, but that it was completed by someone else and, therefore, he refused to acknowledge it as his own.

Lucian Freud pictured in 1958 (Getty Images)Getty Images

However, during the show, art historian Philip Mould and a panel of three Freud experts concluded that the painting was likely a genuine Freud, with materials analysis suggesting that it was the work of a single artist.

"It was a novel and gargantuan task to overturn the reported views of the artist,” said Mould.

"It was different from anything we’d taken on until now – we had never had to arm-wrestle with the words of an artist beyond the grave.

"It was all the more frustrating as the more I worked on the picture and Fiona [Bruce] was able to add the background with her inquiries, the more I felt confident about it being entirely by Freud.”

Meanwhile, records from EASPD, in which students noted what they were working on each day, appeared to support this conclusion, as they revealed that Freud did paint Jameson there in 1939.

And Freud subsequently painted fellow artist Cedric Morris in a similar style, also wearing a black scarf. That piece was acknowledged by Freud and is currently housed in the National Museum of Wales.

Benton End: A Paradise of Pollen and Paint will be open at the Garden Museum between June 2 and September 20, 2026.