A new six-part TV series by the BBC aims to draw back the curtain on the art world, featuring “budding art dealers who battle it out for a chance to win £50,000 worth of British art”.
The new programme, titled The Big Deal, is hosted by Steph McGovern, who will guide the amateur dealers through the murky warrens of the art market, “from spotting breakthrough artists to building relationships with established ones, wooing potential buyers and, ultimately, securing the sale”, says a BBC statement. The series is set to air on BBC Two, BBC Northern Ireland and iPlayer later this year.
McGovern is clearly excited about her new role, saying: “I’m buzzing for you to see how our dealers, from all walks of life, get on when we take them into the heart of the art market, and along all the arteries that stem from it, with the ultimate aim of making money!”
The judges include the gallerist Matt Carey-Williams, the artist Margo McDaid and Ani Petrov, the vice president of marketing at Artsy. Carey-Williams tells us that taking part in the programme was a “tonne of fun”.
