Old Masters and Modern Science

Art authentication is possibly one of the most interesting topic to me. One of the only few books I have finished from start to end is The Forger's Spell: A True Story of Vermeer, Nazi, and the Greatest Art Hoax of the Twentieth Century by Edward Dolnick. The book is about an art forger using chemistry, psychology, and historical circumstances to fool all of Europe. The most thought provoking notion that the book raises is that the best forgeries are those that are still hanging in museums disguised as old masters.

Here is the article from the NY Times about art authentication that prompted me to write this post: