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Over the summer of 2021, art history faculty members Gülru Çakmak, associate professor, and Walter Denny, university distinguished professor, appeared as experts on the television programs “Fake or Fortune” and “Inside the Met.”

On the BBC’s “Fake or Fortune,” Çakmak is described as “one of a new generation” of scholars focused on the work of nineteenth-century French artist Jean-Léon Gerôme. The episode in which Çakmak appears centers around a question of a painting’s authenticity and whether or not Gerôme was, in fact, its maker. Çakmak, who was interviewed remotely via videoconference, declined to authenticate the painting without seeing it in-person. However, she did say that, if it was determined to be an authentic Gerôme work, the painting would be “an important one that will find its place in the narrative of Gerôme’s turn from history painting… to Orientalism.”

Watch: “Fake or Fortune: Jean-Léon Gerôme”

“Inside the Met” is a three-part PBS series documentary series that explores the affects of the of the COVID-19 pandemic on the legacy and future of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Denny was the long-time senior scholar in residence for Carpets and Textile in the Department of Islamic Art and is now Chair of the Visiting Committee of the Department of Textile Conservation. Denny appeared in the series' final installment “For Love or Money.” The episode centers in part around the museum’s financial crisis after shuttering its doors and facing drastically declining attendance numbers due to the pandemic. Denny meets with Janina Poskrobko, the conservator in charge of textile conservation, to view pieces in the Met’s textile collection and discuss a fundraising drive to support the department’s needs. “What binds people together—and the relationship between the museum and its public, is in fact enthusiasm and love, excitement and passion” explains Denny. “The nice thing about this passion,” he continues, “is that it’s not quite as infectious as COVID, but if you’re eloquent enough, you can infect other people with it.”

Watch: “Inside the Met: For Love or Money”