Material analysis: authentication or forgery detection?
- This paper addresses the sensitive issue of authentication of the un-provenanced manuscripts of high monetary value if certified to be genuine.
Over the last decade the popularity of material studies of manuscripts using non-destructive technologies (NDT) has increased enormously. In the case of suspicious writings these studies are held in especially high esteem due to the methodological rigor they are reputed to contribute to debate. Moreover, audiences from a humanities background often tend to disregard the technical details and treat any published interpretation of instrumental analysis as an objective finding.
The paper will discuss the currently available methods and testing protocols for writing materials stressing the advantages and limitations of the non-invasive analysis. As an example we will consider the recent announcement of the possibility of non-invasive dating of carbon inks focusing on the validation required for a testing method.
We will make clear thatThis paper addresses the sensitive issue of authentication of the un-provenanced manuscripts of high monetary value if certified to be genuine.
Over the last decade the popularity of material studies of manuscripts using non-destructive technologies (NDT) has increased enormously. In the case of suspicious writings these studies are held in especially high esteem due to the methodological rigor they are reputed to contribute to debate. Moreover, audiences from a humanities background often tend to disregard the technical details and treat any published interpretation of instrumental analysis as an objective finding.
The paper will discuss the currently available methods and testing protocols for writing materials stressing the advantages and limitations of the non-invasive analysis. As an example we will consider the recent announcement of the possibility of non-invasive dating of carbon inks focusing on the validation required for a testing method.
We will make clear that material analysis alone cannot prove that the object is genuine. We should rather adopt the effective approach for testing suspicious artifacts that has been established by the forensic science. Here, not the authentication, but the determination of the forgery stands in the focus of the work.…