Science Aids Fight Against Art Forgers

Press, Volume C, Issue 29402, 3 January 1961, Page 14

Science Aids Fight Against Art Forgers

[By

KSANKTU reedi

In the ever-preaent conflict against the bogus art dealer, science is an increasingly helpful ally, and new and improved irtethMm of fighting the picture forger are continually being introduced.

Soaring prices for wot®/ of art have imposed greater rdnpnsibilities on the experts who e the job of unmasking bogus old masters. Genuine old masters are today worth more than ever before. The result: there is an increasing temptation for unscrupulous dealers to pass off copies as originals. \ ’ This nefarious trade is no longer confined to pictures by Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, and other famous painters. The Vork of modern artists and impressionists, such as Picasso. Matisse. and Rouault, is being forged i and sold at high prices to unwitting collectors. It is authoritatively estimated ■that between 2000 and 3000 faked ; modwn ‘masterpieces’’ have been i produced and sold as* genuine works of art during the last year or two.

Dealers’ Warning Public art galleries as weU as private collectors are being hoodwinked—to such an extern* that the Society of London Art Dealers has recently warned its members about the menace.

The organisation is co-operat-ing with the French police in an all-out effort to remove the threat to legitimate trade in works of art Many of the fakes are known to originate in the studios of Paris and the Riviera, where well-equipped “factories” Tor their production are being run. Disposal of the forgeries is being facilitated by the fact that many genuine art treasures were looted during the war. Shady art dealers have- thus been provided with an unprecedented opportunity for passing off fakes as works of art which have just come to light again. Nowadays, however, the battle against the faker is being waged with all the help science can give. Even forgeries executed so skilfully that they hoax the most well-informed private collector can often be revealed by laboratory tests. The canvas, the paint, the varnish, even the nails in the frame, can be examined scientifically to determine whether they are as old as they are alleged to be, thus proving whether 'the picture could or could not I have been painted during the lifetime of the artist whose work it purports to be. Age of Pigments The polarising microscope is being used to determine the age ■of* different pigments used by artists. By this means it is possible to discover whether paint of modern manufacture has been used to create a counterfeit old master.

Much knowledge has also been collected about the chemical composition of artists’ pigments. Specks of paint, picked from an allegedly valuable picture, can be analysed. Since some ingredi-

ents in use by painters today were not available to the artists of earlier centuries, the presence of tlnsc immediately indicates a forge y. , Eten if a faker thinks he has outfitted the scientists on this by preparing his pigments in the way adopted by the great painters of the past, he usually slips up in one or two particulars. One forgery, which fooled leading art dealers when it was offered as a Franz Hals “discovery," and for which £7OOO was asked, turned out to have aniline dye in one of its colours. Such Ses were unknown until long er Hals's death. Only a short time ago, a landscape alleged' to be by Signac was withdrawn from a sale at Sotheby’s. London, when a scientific examination proved it to be a fake. It was originally expected to fetch at least £BOOO, but the discovery of the deception reduced its value to a mere £5. RAY TECHNIQUES

Progress in X-ray and infra-red ray techniques *a putting further weapons into the hands of the experts fighting picture forgers. An old trick of the counterfeiter was to obtain an almost worthless old picture and paint a bogus “old master” on top, so that the canvas really was old. Today, rays which easily penetrate the top painting and show up the one underneath have practically put an end to this subterfuge. Modern methods of photography are being used in much the same way. Photographic films are able to exaggerate colour differences, and so disclose small variations which are invisibls to the naked eye. The tintometer, an instrument which measures changes in the colour of dyes, has also been enlisted to expose the faker. It enables the expert to determine just how much a picture’s colours have faded, and in that way does to the probable age of the painting are obtainable. It is believed that copy-artists working in dingy attic studios are being paid only £2O or so for producing forgeries, but rings of shady art dealers are netting large sums. The menace cannot be truly measured in terms of cash alone, however. The racketeers are threatening the very integrity of the genuine market in old masters, and that is one reason why intensive efforts are being made to keep a jump ahead of the fakers. One of the most interesting ideas recently put forward is that the leading painters of today should not only sign their works but add their fingerprints as well. Though this step would not help Ito unmask false old masters, it (would at least prevent 20th-cen-Itury pictures from being forged, land would be helpful to future generations of art collectors.