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But ... is it Real?

Authenticating art, and I include manuscripts in this, is not a straightforward and simple process. You can’t just look at a painting and say, “Yea, that’s a real Van Gogh. Go ahead, it’s perfectly safe to pay a few million for it. Open your wallet, all is well.”

There is the analysis of brushstrokes, the chemical analysis of the paints used, paintings are X-rayed and carefully examined under a variety of microscopes and using advanced analytical equipment. And, in recent years, authentication specialists have added another tool to their authentication repertoire. Though according to this New York Times article on carbon dating materials used after the atomic bomb testing and the bombs dropped in Japan during WWII to determine if the artwork was created before the additional nuclear material in the environment or after, it might be a fleeting tool.

It’s rarely just one person who determines the authenticity of a painting. There is also the provenance to consider. Just because the person selling you the painting tells you they got it legally from, for example, an enthusiastic yard sale purchaser who had it hanging in the dining room for forty years, and took it to an antique roadshow type of event where the dealer purchased it for a fair price, doesn’t mean it was theirs to sell. The most obvious example of art that wasn’t a dealer’s to sell are the Nazi looted paintings.

This is why it’s equally important to dive deep into the history of a piece and in essence track its life story. Where did it originate, who had it next, etc. The more information about a piece’s history can be verified through documentation, receipts, journal entries, etc., the more valuable the piece becomes. Assuming of course that paper trail is authentic. There are examples of well-crafted forgeries with stellar provenances, including perfectly forged receipts. But it just takes one forgery in that chain to be pegged as false to unravel the scheme.

But what about books and ancient manuscripts? How can you tell if the piece is authentic and what makes it authentic? In the case of the Archimedes Palimpsest – read about it in the book The Archimedes Codex - the actual prayer book it was found in was authentic in and of itself. However, the pages of the prayer book were created from reused parchment. And the original text of most of the pages, not all, in the prayer book contained notes and mathematical formulas that were from Archimedes teachings. The prayer book had therefore been made from much older scholarly material.

It was a very common practice in ancient times to reuse parchment. It wasn’t cheap to get brand new parchment and if you could afford it, did you get the superior calf’s parchment or settle for lesser quality sheep parchment?

Most of the educational texts centuries ago were written on the lesser quality sheep’s parchment and were commonly reused for new texts. There are different parchments that have survived with recipes on it for how best to remove old ink from parchment and how to prepare it to reuse it. From soaking it in either a highly acidic solution or highly alkaline solution, to adding the burnt or ground skin of a hare, which doesn’t seem like it would have an effect. Turns out everyone had their own recipe, some going back to Egypt, around AD 300. After soaking it was recommended you stretch the parchment on a frame and put something heavy on it. This means there would be small holes around the edges of the paper, which can give an authenticator or conservator a clue that the parchment had been reused and the text on it was most likely not the original.

After all that soaking and stretching and flattening, the user was advised to scrape the parchment to remove roughness and any surface ink that might remain. To do that it was recommended one use either pumice stone or chalk. Each of these leave unique microscopic traces in the form of scratches or whitening of the parchment. An authenticator, as well as a conservator, can see those and identify them under a microscope or can even take tiny samples to analyze the composition of the material used in that last process of clearing the parchment of old ink.

There are not many examples of whole manuscripts being forged, though individual pages, especially illuminated ones (those with beautiful painted designs and illustrations on them) do come up as forgeries from time to time. More on that next time.

Finding My Way Back to the Arts

Once upon a time I was ready to dive into the art world with my freshly minted Arts Management degree, only to be knocked sideways and off course by a series of events that led me down a few different winding paths.

Each of these paths, thankfully, included writing in some form or another, which helped me hone my skills and craft, until finally, I found the yellow brick road. Okay, maybe not quite that fabled path, but certainly a way back to what I loved. Through a series of serendipitous connections and posts spotted on LinkedIn, I found out about the Art Newspaper. After reading the 3 permitted free articles online, I was hungry for more. I felt revived, like a parched plant was finally given water.

But, let me go to the beginning, before I got that proverbial water. It all started with a new book idea. While working on the first draft, I realized I might need a little research to make sure I got the details right. A ‘simple’ story about forged manuscripts, art auctions, theft and an international chase, complete with a reluctant heroine, an art restorer, ruthless collectors, and a full cast of colorful supporting characters.

By chapter two I realized I definitely needed more information. This led me on many online searches, new connections and fascinating phone calls with people in the field of manuscript conservation, art authentication and art crime law. From Interpol and the FBI, to conservators at major museums and libraries across the world, to lawyers specialized in art crimes, to scientists using cutting edge technology to detect and uncover possible forgeries.

It also had me scouring used book sites to find obscure titles as well as more recent books on the subject. In addition, online documentation and reports shared with me by new connections really opened up the story and fueled more ideas.

It’s mind-boggling to learn the kind of fraud, forgery and theft – and clever money laundering schemes - that goes on in the international art world – I included manuscripts in that. For some time I was getting lost in the many different directions I could go with the book I’d started writing.

Notebooks, random pieces of paper, napkins, envelopes; everything I could scribble a quick idea on is used. I’m still very much in the input phase of learning. But I have narrowed it down and am back on the path I’d originally chosen for the story. The only difference is that now I have loads more detail to populate the story with, and a notebook with ideas for sequels.

As interesting as the wide world of art crime is, that’s not what I want this blog series to be about, I want to keep the focus a little narrower. With all this information I’ve been gathering, I will soon have enough material for a non-fiction book. So, as I puzzle out the chapters for this non-fiction book, I will chronicle my research and planning in blog posts that offer a short dip into different element of book and manuscript forgery, authentication, conservation, restoration, crime, etc.

Please feel free to provide feedback, or ask questions, as that will only make the book better and give me an idea of what a lay-reader without any or little art/manuscript background would like to know more about.

You can also learn more about my writing to date at: www.elynnhwriting.com