Curtis Dowling

With nearly 35 years' experience as a forgeries expert, Curtis Dowling is highly respected as a leading international authority in his field. Investors, museums and private art companies hire him to confirm both the authenticity of art and antiques they are considering buying, and to purchase key pieces for their collection, or investigate lost or stolen art & antiques.

Curtis travels the world authenticating art and solving art mysteries, spending most of his time in the USA.

Curtis was discovered when a producer from the BBC's One Show attended one of his lectures at Belchamp Hall in Suffolk. This led to an appearance on BBC 1's 'The One Show', where he spotted fake Beatles memorabilia in Liverpool. 'Inside Out' on BBC1 followed quickly. This time Curtis put his own faking skills to the test and successfully fooled individuals from the Churchill Archives & created more believable fakes for Inside Out London a little time after creating authentic looking Titanic items. Curtis then went on to be one of the resident experts on BBC1's ever popular daytime series 'Sun, Sea and Bargain Spotting' travelling across Europe to find bargains to sell back home with his contestants.

He has worked alongside Duncan Bannatyne for BBC2's primetime series 'Beat the Bank'. As the antiques and art expert, Curtis was in the race to turn a healthy profit on Duncan's money. He has also appeared as an expert on BBC1's hit daytime show 'Cash in the Attic' and 'Cash in the Celebrity attic' and two series of presenting the ever-popular BBC1 'Put Your Money Where Your Mouth is'. He then turned his attention back to his true field of expertise fakes, scams and forgeries with appearances on 'Rogue Traders', 'Fake Britain' and Channel 5's 'Live From Studio 5'.

Curtis conceived and wrote the critically acclaimed 2012 Channel 4 documentary "Elizabeth Taylor: Auction of a Lifetime" and the presented BBC's 'Hidden Paintings'.

Curtis was the writer and presenter of the hit US series 'Treasure Detectives' which aired on CNBC Prime Time. Since then, he has been a contestant on Celebrity Eggheads on BBC2, as well as the presenter and contributor to the first series of 'Susan Calman’s Big Antique Adventure' which aired on Channel 5 in June 2022.

Whether you’re organising a conference and looking for an original, informative and entertaining keynote presentation, or simply after a light-hearted and anecdotal talk about the murky world of identity theft, scammers, con artistes and rip-off merchants, Curtis Dowling will take you on a fascinating journey of discovery to find out what is real and what is not quite what it seems!

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