ART FRAUDS EXPOSED

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 288, 31 August 1921, Page 7

ART FRAUDS EXPOSED

-i. 1 ” laATEST TRIUMPH OF X-RASS

I The latest- triumph of the X-ray is in - identifying the paintings of old masters, and persons fearing the Teal truth rcI garding the value of canvases they pos'.sesg hud better keep them away frpm 'this relentless medical eye. It tells the whole story clearly and quickly. The photographic Society's exhibition in London of' radiographs includes some curious examples of X-ray discoveries about pictures',' and reveals the tricks which sent some prices tumbling and others soaring. Th-ero is one radiograph of a picture supposed to be by Van Ostade, which looks every inch an old master, and has generally been accepted as such. It depicts Dutch peasants frolicking, but beneath the X-ray the peasants and their surroundings vanish, and nothing remains save traces of a picture of a farmyard scene, on which 4he modern forgery was painted.. Such secrets are easy for the X-ray. Old painters, according to the Photographic .Society’s experts, made a liberal use of sphaltum, or bitumen, in the colours they used, and this is impervious to the X-ray. The modern painter does not use it, and consequently his/work vanishes under the X-ray. Another example shows an expensive flower piece, but the radiograph shows only a few faint lines on an almost bare canvas. !

A most curious case is that of a genuine Madonna. The photograph shows a picture of the late Italian school, but the radiograph shows that once the picture had a serious accident, because it must have been cut in two and then the pieces put together again, and the necessary restoration effected. The restoration work disappears in the radiograph, and its place is shown by a broad white band going >adrbss the picture. Exports say the system cannot bo beaten, and that there need never again bo raised ® serious question regarding any work of art. The simple X-ray tells the whole story for those who can afford to have it told.