Works of art have, for many centuries, constituted a point of high interest, and even worship. The quality and the spirituality the works have expressed, their authors fame and their purchase value, offered an elevation to their owners status.
Nowadays their acquisition, other than the aforementioned aesthetic and cultural education, it constitutes an alternative form of investment in global scale, which is not directly influenced by the prices of gold and oil.
While this market began to extend, the value of many works of art has reached extraordinary figures. At the same time the systematic copy and sale of counterfeit work was developed and extended. This fact created the need for a certification of the works authenticity in order to sale it.
The long and insisting investigation and experimentation in materials along with different methods have helped individuals obtain the ability to distinguish the copies from the originals. However, the development of technology and the ease of access in information, provide authors of counterfeit work with an arsenal of techniques and methods of reproduction that make it almost impossible to distinguish the authentic works by traditional means and methodology.
A. Analytical Methods
Preliminary Tests
- Examination under electronical microscope (x8000)
- Photography ( under visible, ir and uv light)
- Colormeter
- Measuring the thickness of color
- Measuring the hardness of color
Non destructive surface analysis
- XRF (x ray fluorescence)
- RAMAN spectrometry
- FTIR
- SEM-EDS
B. Style and brushwork analysis of painter