Sun, Jan 19, 1992
After spending the weekend with Victoria, Lovejoy takes her to an antiques fair and cannot believe his luck when he picks up a set of paintings by famous artist Lionel Beckwith for a mere twelve pounds. He sells them to a local gallery but is interrupted by Beckwith himself, claiming they are forgeries. A little detective work on Lovejoy's part reveals Beckwith's reasons for wanting supposedly adverse publicity, as interest in his work is falling. Lady Jane saves the day for Eric after he is conned by a supposedly bereaved pensioner.
Sun, Feb 9, 1992
Wealthy Australian Greg Veitch arrives in East Anglia looking for his 'Eureka', the thing that he must have, and believes he has found it in a Beninese bronze sculpture belonging to Sir Max Spence. Problems obtaining an export licence leads to him doing a deal with Sir Max and a local forger to get the statue out of the country. When it goes missing Lovejoy comes under suspicion but discovers that police inspector Shand is not all he claims to be - just as Veitch will have a similar experience with the bronze, which will lead him to seek revenge.
Sun, Feb 16, 1992
In hospital with a broken leg, Lovejoy delegates Lady Jane and Tinker to sell a terra cotta Chinese pig to a Chinese banker. It turns out to be a forgery and gets broken, revealing its contents, a valuable medieval Chinese bank note. But this might also be a forgery so Lovejoy makes use of micro-surgery to examine another pig, one of several in the possession of choleric dealer and possible swindler Sir Desmond Clark. Meanwhile Eric meets fellow biker, the lovely Natasha, with whose help he sells his motor-cycle as having been the property of Lawrence of Arabia.
Sun, Feb 23, 1992
Vicky finds a Scots claymore in the attic of her new flat which Lovejoy buys from her. He is approached by a man named Kinloch who offers him a more than generous price for it, claiming a family connection, and, when a suspicious Lovejoy refuses, the sword becomes the subject of a bungled burglary. Lovejoy is intrigued and finds out that the sword provides the key to a cache of French gold buried in the ground. Ironically Tartan Transactions, a controversial firm in which Kinloch has an interest, has just built a supermarket over it and retrieval seems unlikely.
Sun, Mar 1, 1992
When Lady Jane puts a Berber rug into auction it is bought by elderly Harriet Fisher for her Irish wolfhound, but young Moroccan Abdel is also after it and steals it from her house. Lovejoy buys a second rug and again Abdel is keen to own it, claiming that the rugs were woven in his village by his girlfriend and contain the answer to his marriage proposal. Lovejoy is not convinced and learns that Abdel's prospective uncle Said has a more mercenary reason for wanting the rug. Having got it back for Harriet, Lovejoy comforts Lady Jane, who has split from her husband after refusing to go to Hong Kong with him for his job.
Sun, Mar 8, 1992
After Lovejoy offers to sell a seventeenth century 'Smoke Your Nose' dish for him, vicar Harry Nettles tells him that there is the remains of a Roman villa in the field next to his church, but the land is marked for development by shifty Derek Rudge as a leisure centre. Lovejoy wonders why nobody has bothered to take Harry's claims seriously and uncovers an arrangement between Rudge and county archaeologist Nancy Phelan, which results in the reverend's story being authenticated. Eric is less fortunate when he sells a grandfather clock to pernickety Mr. Rosenbaum, who is definitely not what he seems.