The Mona Lisa Curse, the first film in Channel 4's three-part Art and Money season, is a timely polemic by internationally renowned art critic Robert Hughes which examines how the world's most famous painting came to influence the art world. With his trademark style, Hughes explores how museums, the production of art and the way we experience it, have radically changed in the last 50 years.
London is home to around 1,000 Russian multi-millionaires, some of whom have turned their attention to the acquisition of fine art: oligarch Roman Abramovich recently spent £17.2m on Lucian Freud's Benefits Supervisor Sleeping . With unique access to the notoriously private world of Russia's super-rich, writer and Russian expert Marcel Theroux investigates the enormous impact they are having on the art establishment.
The third and final film of the Art and Money season. Interest in Aboriginal art has sky-rocketed in recent years and it is now a multi-million-dollar global industry. Ekow Eshun, director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, looks at the complex issues surrounding the acquisition of indigenous art. As he meets well-known Aboriginal artists and other art industry players, it becomes clear that while some communities have learned to take advantage of the interest in their art, others continue to be exploited, being paid just a few dollars for paintings that could eventually sell for thousands.
