Tips on how to spot fake art amid surge in forgery cases

The recent discovery of an art forger’s workshop in Rome serves as a reminder that the world of fraudulent artworks has a long and storied history. In an era dominated by deepfakes and digital deception, it’s easy to assume forgery is a modern problem. However, counterfeiting masterpieces has been a centuries-old practice, evident in recent controversies, including allegations that a prized Rubens painting in London’s National Gallery is a forgery.

On February 19, Italy’s Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage uncovered an extensive forgery ring in Rome, seizing over 70 counterfeit artworks falsely attributed to famous artists like Picasso, Rembrandt, and Pissarro. The suspect allegedly sold these fakes through online platforms such as eBay and Catawiki, complete with fabricated certificates of authenticity.

Shortly after this revelation, a new book by artist and historian Euphrosyne Doxiadis claimed that Samson and Delilah, a painting attributed to Peter Paul Rubens and purchased by the National Gallery for £2.5 million in 1980, is actually a much later forgery.

According to an article by the BBC delving into the recent high-profile cases of art forgery, it would challenge the expertise of art historians and raise fundamental questions about authenticity and artistic value if found to be true. The debate underscores a broader issue in the art world—how to distinguish genuine masterpieces from convincing forgeries.

Art fraud has led to high-profile scandals throughout history, but experts have developed key methods to detect forgeries. The article has summarized the tips into five essential rules that can help identify a fake masterpiece:

Rule 1: Pigments Never Lie

Scientific analysis of pigments can expose forgeries, as seen in the downfall of German forger Wolfgang Beltracchi. Beltracchi imitated modernist artists by mixing his own paints, ensuring they contained only historically available materials. However, in 2006, he made a fatal mistake—using a store-bought paint that contained titanium white, a pigment unavailable to the German Expressionist Heinrich Campendonk. This single error led investigators to uncover a multi-million-dollar forgery scheme.

Rule 2: Keep the Past Present

Provenance, or an artwork’s ownership history, is crucial in authentication. Dutch forger Han van Meegeren exploited collectors' desires to believe they had discovered lost Vermeers. His Christ and the Men at Emmaus was widely celebrated despite lacking any historical record. After World War II, Van Meegeren was arrested for selling a "Vermeer" to Nazi official Hermann Göring. To prove his innocence, he demonstrated his forgery skills by painting another "Vermeer" in front of experts, revealing the deception.

Rule 3: Squint to see technique

An artist's signature style—brushstrokes, composition, and technique—acts like a fingerprint, making forgery difficult. British forger Eric Hebborn, who counterfeited over 1,000 works attributed to masters like Piranesi and Tiepolo, overcame this challenge by drinking alcohol to steady his nerves and mimic historic techniques. Despite his success, he met a mysterious end in 1996, possibly murdered for his deception.

Rule 4: Scanning

When traditional analysis fails, technology provides deeper insights. A disputed Van Gogh still life faced decades of skepticism due to its unusual colors and lack of provenance. In 2012, X-ray analysis revealed an entirely different painting—two wrestlers—beneath the floral composition. Van Gogh had written about painting such a scene, confirming the artwork’s authenticity. This breakthrough demonstrated how forensic imaging can resolve long-standing debates.

Rule 5: Attention to Detail

Even minor details can expose fakes. In 2007, collector Pierre Lagrange bought a Jackson Pollock painting for $17 million. However, experts later noticed a misspelling in the artist’s signature—missing the distinct “c” in “Pollock.” This error, along with other inconsistencies, led to the exposure of a massive fraud involving Knoedler & Co, a prestigious New York gallery that had sold counterfeit works by Rothko, De Kooning, and Motherwell for $80 million.

As scientific methods and technology advance, forgers continue refining their techniques, making art authentication an ongoing battle. The exposure of fraudulent works, whether through pigment analysis, provenance research, or forensic imaging, reveals the art world’s vulnerability to deception. Yet, history shows that fakes—even the most sophisticated ones—inevitably leave clues behind, waiting for experts to uncover them.

By Nazrin Sadigova