Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA https://doi.org/c67x (2019)

Spotting forged artwork can be tough, in part because getting enough material to do radiocarbon dating is invasive, and in part because old frames and canvases can be acquired by forgers relatively easily. Laura Hendriks and co-workers have now demonstrated a carbon dating technique that targets a microsample of the paint itself, and tested it on a known fraud.

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© James Hamm

Using recent developments in mass spectrometry, the team sampled both a strand from the canvas and a 58 μg fleck of the paint. They confirmed that the canvas was old, but discovered that the oil from which the paint was made was harvested either between 1958 and 1961, or 1983 and 1989. The forger had previously confessed to creating the fake in 1985. Forgers will now have to get their hands on antique paint to stay ahead of the authorities.