Forgers take heed, a simple way to detect fake bank notes using their inks鈥� unique 鈥渕agnetic signature鈥� can also be used to authenticate oil paintings, according to the scientists who invented the technique.
Some of the inks used to print bank notes around the world are made of , which are magnetic.
These generate weak magnetic fields that can be measured using instruments such as superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUIDs). A SQUID can be simply scanned across the note to record a 鈥渕ap鈥� of its magnetic flux.
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Previously, and Anna Vila of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and colleagues made magnetic maps of Brazilian bank notes and found that each note has a unique signature that remains stable over time.
The researchers suggested that these signatures could be used as an identification tag to help distinguish a real note from a fake one.
Illegal market
The researchers have now extended the technique to determining the magnetic signatures of oil paintings. The magnetism in this case comes from minerals, like magnetite, in the oil-paint pigments. Again, the signature could be used to identify the artwork and might even serve as a tag for cataloguing purposes by museums and insurance companies.
鈥淪tolen art trading is the world鈥檚 fourth greatest illegal market,鈥� explains Costa Ribeiro, after drugs, money laundering, and weapons traffic.
Jose Garcia of the University of Barcelona, who researches ways to in authenticating paintings, describes the technique as, 鈥渁n interesting new approach to the global analysis of artworks鈥�. He adds: 鈥淎lthough there are other non-destructive techniques with a spatial resolution image better than this one, it could be an interesting research line for the future.鈥�
The team is currently studying the magnetic maps obtained from religious sculptures and ceramic vases using the same technique.
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