The old trope of the Master Forger, fooling all the experts, has reached the 21st century. Now the concern is whether science can be taken in – is it possible to make a ‘science proof’ forgery with all the right materials and signs of age? In this talk we will examine the evidence for this, from the extent to which art criminals are producing paintings designed to pass analytical testing to how analysis is still ahead of the game. Real-life cases to be discussed include the use of ‘historically appropriate’ pigments, obscure historical materials incorporated to trick the unwary, features difficult for forgers to replicate, and the strategies we can use to stay in front in detecting these falsehoods.

Dr. Nicholas Eastaugh originally trained as a physicist before going on to study conservation and art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, where he completed a PhD in scientific analysis and documentary research of historical pigments in 1988. Since 1989 he has been a consultant in the scientific and art technological study of paint and paintings. A frequent lecturer, he has also been for many years a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. In 1999 he co-founded the Pigmentum Project, an interdisciplinary research group developing comprehensive high-quality documentary and analytical data on historical pigments and other artists’ materials. This led to the publication of The Pigment Compendium in 2004, which quickly became a standard reference text in the field. He is also founder and now Chief Scientist of Art Analysis & Research, the leading art analysis company. Dr. Eastaugh has wide research and publication interests, including developing chronologies of historical materials and the history of technology as applicable to art materials as well as analytical and documentation standards, databases and novel imaging technologies.