In an article about the use of the catalogue raisonne to defend the integrity of an artist’s oeuvre (“Defending the Integrity of an Artist’s Life’s Work”,The Wall Street Journal, December 7, 2011), Jack Flam notes that when connoisseurship, provenance and historical context are not enough to place a work in or out of an artist’s oeuvre, forensic testing is undetaken to determine whether the materials and techniques are in line with the artist’s practice and time period. He then states, “But because disclosing such information might provide a road map for future forgers, most caaalogue raisonne projects do not give detailed reasons for a work’s exclusion.” Should the fear of providing tips to forgers preclude the public sharing of information about artists’ materials and techniques?
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This is a really interesting post! I just read a book called Provenance: How a Con Man and Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo. The book is a true story about a con man who sells over 400 paintings (and who knows how many more!) and completely fakes their provenances. He has stamps and letterheads and all these archival documents that create the entire authenticity of the work. Once people got suspicious, however, they were able to pin him by checking the inks and types of paper he used and found that they contained chemicals that were used until well after the painting was made.
That is a long way of saying that I think it is important not to disclose all the information about techniques and materials. The art market is a huge industry and the more people can fake works, the more they can change history. I think there is some fine line between how much to disclose and how much to withhold that conservators need to think hard about.
Great post, thanks for sharing!