The Overlooked Theft

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

Odalisque in Red Pants 1925 Henri Matisse (original on left)

We can never know for sure the percentage of paintings in museums and collectors’ hands that are actually forgeries. It is certainly not in the best interest of a museum to disclose the discovery of fakes in its midst. Industry estimates range from 10 to a shocking 50%.

Eric Postma is a professor of artificial intelligence and expert on the digital analysis of the paintings of Van Gogh at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Of the many Van Gogh’s that have been brought to him for authentication by collectors, he estimates that 99% have been fake. He advocates the addition of digital analysis to the other more traditional forms of analysis currently used to validate the legitimacy of paintings. Postma has worked with the Van Gogh Museum using software that among other things, breaks down the shapes and strength of individual brush strokes to create an algorithm unique to the artist in order to authenticat…