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| Art
forgery is most common in famous pieces that offer high
prices, but is also common in some of the less famous
pieces, as not many people know what the piece looks like,
making the selling of a forged piece easy. Analysis of
a painting is the most accurate method of uncovering an
art forgery, as an art piece can be tested to see how
old it is. |
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Choose one of the following to read
more:
--> Using
the microscope
--> Light
--> Colours
and composition
--> Metals
and ceramics
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| Using
The Microscope |
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In
a laboratory, oil paintings can easily be tested
using the simplest methods of examination. Microscopes
allow scientists to see how old a painting really
is. Forgers create old, cracked looking surfaces
by rolling the canvas, heating and cooling it rapidly
and applying a constricting varnish using a stippling
brush to give it a fly-blown look. X-rays
can also reveal whether the cracks appear under
the surface and on every layer of the painting.
In forged paintings, it is quite often found that
the forger has only created a cracked appearance
on the top layer and therefore, it does not match
the bottom layer. |
| *Van
Gogh's Sunflowers is a classical artpiece,
with the original piece now located at the
London National Gallery. |
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| Light |
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| Depending on
the paint composition and the age of the painting, ultraviolet
light shows fluorescent
blue-green if the varnish is from the 19th century. Infrared
light can also reveal whether it is paint or ink used
in the painting. If these tests reveal nothing out of
the ordinary, scientists take a paint sample from the
edge of the painting or a damaged area, placing it in
cold-setting polymer
and are thereafter able to identify its pigment
underneath a microscope. |
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| Colours
and Composition |
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Because oil paintings began
in the 15th century, certain colours did not exist
at that time, for example, Prussian blue was only
created in 1704. A painting that contains the
Prussian blue colour, therefore, cannot be anymore
than three centuries old.
The canvas
on which an oil painting was painted provides
an inaccurate guide to age. The weave composition
of the material may however, provide a clue, but
a forger may have used an old, cleaned off canvas
from another artist. Canvas frames, on the other
hand can be dated using the tree ring measurement
technique, which can tell how long ago exactly
the wood was cut.
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| *Even
till today, Leonardo De Vinci's Mona Lisa
(1503-1506) is one the world's best known portraits,
currently located at
lè Louvre in Paris, France. |
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| Copyright
Thinkquest Team 00206 Oct 2004 |
SEPARATOR
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| Metals
and Ceramics |
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| Fraud metals
and ceramics are difficult to spot and require some highly
advanced equipment and techniques. Ceramics are hard to
copy, as identical clay to the original is required in
order to make them look even close to the real thing.
Stone statues are almost always an original, as it requires
too much time and labour for a forger to consider. Cast
metals, on the other hand, are much easier to forge, but
only a small handful acquires suspicion. |
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