Identify tampering with nuclear technology will help ...!
ARTinvestment.RU   27 июня 2008

A former curator of the Russian Museum has teamed up with a group of physicists in order to create a new technology of recognition of counterfeit works of art

history of art from St. Petersburg, Elena Basner has developed a new way to detect forgeries of works of art.

From 1978 to 2003 worked as a curator Basner XX century art department of the State Russian Museum. According to her, a lot of time it took to determine the real work or not. The biggest problems were, of course, with the Russian avant-garde. The paintings of Russian artists created during the period from 1900 to 1930, began to actively forge in 1960. And in the 1980's and early 1990's forgery expressly so flooded the market. Falsifiers fully learned to forge a signature, artificially age canvases and paints to create, by their chemical composition indistinguishable from those that were made at the beginning of the century ... In the search for new ways to recognize fake Elena Basner consulted with many scientists. During the discussions it became clear that there is a unique distinction between pre-war period, when the originals were written, and the post-war, when a fake: split the atom.

first nuclear test took place in July 1945 in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Prior to the 1963 Treaty was signed to ban nuclear weapons tests in the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union detonated a total of 550 nuclear warheads. The tests led to the emergence of isotopes not previously existed in nature. These isotopes, cesium-137 and strontium-90, penetrated into the soil and plants and as a result have been in the works of art: natural oils are used as a binder component for paints. Consequently, any picture, which was written after 1945, contains in itself the particles, ie, genuine works of Russian avant-garde, no cesium-137 and strontium-90 is not an option. The team of scientists under the leadership of Basner has patented technology to detect these particles in the inks.

The first who tried it a novelty, became collectors of works of art. One of them, St. Petersburg collector Vladimir Afonin, brought for examination picture Konstantin Gorbatov , dated 1919 year. The work has proved true: the traces of the isotopes are not found. By Basner also called collectors who wish to check the originality of the work before you buy at auction.

Basner, who now works as a consultant Swedish auction house Bukowskis, said: «The number of counterfeit works of avant-garde just incredible. Maybe even more than the original ». It would seem that using the new technology could break the vicious circle. But, as said Basner, «Collectors and dealers do not want us to come. They are afraid. The market will resist the new technology: too many people who are interested in the fact that fakes were in circulation ».

Julia Maksimova

Sources: theartnewspaper.com , artinvestment.ru