Researchers find a way to use minute samples to detect forged paintings

THE AMOUNT of creativity that forgers put into their work can sometimes rival that of the artists they copy. A sharp eye and an uncertain provenance might suggest to someone that a particular work is counterfeit, but often science is the only way to prove it. This can be done by analysing the materials the artist used, to see if they are contemporary with the claimed date of the painting. Forgers, though, are wise to this. Some remove the paint from old canvasses and reuse them for their creations. They also apply pigments prepared in period ways. Such trickery could become easier to expose with a new technique to spot modern forgeries from the tiniest of samples.One of the difficulties with the laboratory analysis of a painting is obtaining samples of a sufficient size. Often the tests involved are destructive, so the same sample cannot be tested twice to confirm the results. A piece of wood from the back of a frame or a fragment trimmed from the edge of a canvas might be an acceptable loss. But taking a portion of paint from the picture itself could be a problem, especially if it damages what could turn out to be an extremely valuable work.