The identification of the Bowes Museum's portrait of Olivia Boteler Porter as an original work by Anthony van Dyck was publicly announced after the painting had been spotted through the BBC Your Paintings project. The portrait had long sat in storage, dirty and treated as a later copy. Art historian Bendor Grosvenor investigated it for a BBC Culture Show special; cleaning, technical examination, and expert review by Christopher Brown supported the attribution. The subject was identified as Olivia Porter, wife of Van Dyck's friend and patron Sir Endymion Porter and a lady-in-waiting to Henrietta Maria. The announcement was a striking demonstration of how digitized public collections could surface overlooked works and alter museum knowledge.
It became an early showcase for digital collection access as a tool for attribution and rediscovery.
