Tips on how to discover fake art in counterfeiting,

The latest discovery of the workshop of a kind of Forger in Rome serves as a memory to ensure that the world of fraudulent works of art has a long and famous story. In an era that is dominated by Deepfakes and digital deception, it is easy to assume that falsification is a modern problem. Fake masterpieces, however, were a centuries-old practice that is obvious in recent controversy, including the allegations that an award-winning Rubens painting in the London National Gallery is a fake.

On February 19th, Italy's Carabinieri command commanded to protect the cultural heritage discovered An extensive counterfeiting ring in Rome, which, over 70 falsified works of art, will raise famous artists such as Picasso, Rembrandt and Pissarro. The suspect allegedly sold these counterfeits via online platforms such as Ebay and Catawiki with invented certificates of authenticity.

Shortly after this revelation, a new book by the artist and historian Euphrosyne Doxiadis claimed that Samson and Delilah, a painting that Peter Paul Rubens was attributed and bought in 1980 by the National Gallery for £ 2.5 million, was actually a much later fake.

After an article from the BBC If you deal with the latest top-class cases of art cases, it would question the know-how of art historians and raise basic questions about authenticity and artistic value when it is found that they are true. The debate underlines a broader topic in the art world – how to distinguish real masterpieces from convincing counterfeits.

Art fraud has led to top -class scandals in the course of history, but experts have developed important methods for recognizing counterfeits. The article has summarized the tips in five essential rules that can help identify a fake masterpiece:

Rule 1: pigments never lie

The scientific analysis of pigments can expose counterfeits, as can be seen in the fall of German counter Wolfgang Beltracchi. Beltracchi imitated modernist artists by mixing their own colors and ensuring that they contained only historically available materials. In 2006, however, he made a fatal error-a-bought color that contained titanium white, a pigment that was not available to the German Expressionist Heinrich Campendonk. This individual mistake prompted the investigators to uncover a false scheme of several million dollars.

Rule 2: Hold the past

Origin or the history of a work of art is crucial for authentication. Dutch counterfeiter Han van Meegeren used the wishes of the collectors from the assumption that they had discovered lost Vermeer. His Christ and the men of Emmaus were widespread despite the lack of historical records. After the Second World War, Van Meegeren was arrested because he had sold a “Vermeer” to the National Socialist officials Hermann Göring. In order to prove his innocence, he demonstrated his counterfeit skills by painting another “Vermeer” in front of experts and unveiling the deception.

Rule 3: Squint to see the technology

The characteristic style of an artist – Citizens' Stroke, Composition and Technology – looks like a fingerprint, which makes falsification difficult. The British counterfeit Eric Hebborn, who was falsified over 1,000 works that have been attributed to masters such as Piranesi and Tiepolo, overcame this challenge by drinking alcohol to imitate its nerves and historical techniques. Despite his success, he met a mysterious end in 1996, which may have been murdered for his deception.

Rule 4: Scan

If the traditional analysis fails, the technology offers deeper insights. A controversial van Gogh still life was exposed to decades of skepticism due to its unusual colors and the lack of origin. In 2012, the X-ray analysis resulted in a completely different painting-two wrestler-die flower composition. Van Gogh had written about painting such a scene and confirmed the authenticity of the work of art. This breakthrough showed how forensic imaging can dissolve long -term debates.

Rule 5: attention to detail

Even smaller details can expose counterfeits. In 2007 Collector Pierre Lagrange bought a Jackson Pollock painting for 17 million dollars. However, experts later noticed a spelling mistake in the artist's signature – and described the independent “C” in “Pollock”. This error, together with other inconsistencies to expose a massive fraud with Knoedler & Co, led a respected New York gallery that had sold fake works by Rothko, De Kooning and Motherwell for $ 80 million.

When scientific methods and technologies are progressing, the lead continues to refine its techniques and make artificentation a continuous struggle. The exposure of fraudulent works, be it through pigment analysis, origin research or forensic imaging, shows the susceptibility of the art world for deception. However, the story shows that the cases – even the most demanding – are left behind and wait for experts to uncover them.

By Nazrin Sadigova