Science detects forgeries

Press, 30 August 1980, Page 26

Science detects forgeries

Unemployed physicists could turn to forgery for a career, Professor E. T. Hall has told a meeting of the Royal Society. Professor Hall is a physicist who detects fakes and forgeries for Oxford University, archaeologists, and art historians.

The scientific knowledge used to uncover a forgery could be used to make the perfect fake, he said. Professor Hall had a great admiration for forgers: “Some of them turn out the most fantastic things,” he said.

i Today’s technology made lit more difficult for a forger to remain undetected, he said. X--ays, microscopes, ultra-violet lamps, and carbon dating were .the I weapons used by scientists lin their fight to establish 'authenticity. ' Forgers who worked cen- ; turies ago were now being revealed for what they were, Professor Hall said. In contrast, the reputations of money-makers accused of I forging coins in the twefth century had been cleared. Examination of some coins showed that they were genuine. The innocent men had long since paid for their crimes — they were castrated and had their hands cut off. “I think those poor moniers were done a mischief,” Professor Hall said.

It took an x-ray exam- . ination to prove that a painting which art experts I were convinced was a genuine Vermeer was a forgery. ' The artist who painted it

swore that the work was! his. He was proved right. His meticulous attention to■ detail was foiled by a dirty palate: traces of cobalt blue, which was not invented until 1948, were detected in the otherwise flawless imitation, Professor Hall said. Professor Hall had been duped by the forger’s skill. He said that he bought a small statue which was later

revealed as a fake. Too little thermoluminescence uncovered the deception. Thermoluminescence is the stored energy released as light from ceramics when they are heated. The older the piece, the more light it releases. “The magic goes out of a thing when it is revealed as a fake,” Professor Hall said.