Compiling this week’s list has been a real segue from the norm with not one, but two contributions from Daily Maverick staffers. If nothing on the list floats your boat, don’t shoot the messenger.
Raiders of the Lost Art
Our sub-editor and TV addict Diane Cassere has this to say about an arty whodunnit.
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I kept passing by this programme, thinking the title catchy but not really sure what it was. Then, a friend tipped me off and I entered the fascinating world of art, moving from “I know what I like” to “I know why I like”.
It's a whodunnit with wonderful twists and turns. The world's fascination with art works, the theft, the recovery, the greed and the hoarding are all covered.
Art mirrors its time, but is also ageless. It informs of us who we are and who we were. People covet the great works and you will be astonished at what they will pay for them. And stealing them is an art form – excuse the pun – in itself.
And then you get the people who recover art from its illegal owners and restore it to the world. There seems to be an army of people who care, who have the knowledge and who are dedicated to giving stolen works back to us.
But the drama doesn’t stop there. The art world is also full of forgers.
From Van Gogh to Vermeer, Da Vinci to Dali, the secrets of the art world are all there. And the true-life stories of the heroic people who love them.
This is the TV version of a page-turner.
Available on Netflix
Anne with an E
Our esteemed Joburg editor and mom-of-two (some say more since all of us writers are basically her children), Jillian Green, offers this morsel.