Abstract
In 2011 Wolfgang Beltracchi was convicted of forging 14 works by famous artists. For this, Beltracchi described the use of a self-built oven to accelerate the drying of his oil paints and to promote signs of ageing. Questions arose as to how these treatments may influence the curing of the oil paint and whether ageing products could be identified which differ from those found in naturally dried modern oil paints. Of particular relevance are oxidative cross-linking reactions, oxidative fragmentation, hydrolysis and carboxylate formation. It is probable that accelerated thermal ageing conditions will cause disequilibrium between the different reaction pathways, leading to reaction sequences that differ from natural ageing. To explore this, chemical alteration in lead white and zinc white pigmented modern oil paints was induced using different thermal ageing conditions across periods from one to eight weeks. After this exposure, the samples exhibited considerable differences in visual and mechanical properties. A group of artificially aged samples, samples from Beltracchi’s fakes as well as samples from genuine expressionist paintings were then analysed using Fourier Transform Infrared-Spectroscopy (FTIR) in combination with a sulfur tetrafluoride sample pre-treatment technique (gaseous SF4-derivatisation), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectroscopy (ESI). Comparison of the results demonstrated that none of the ageing conditions lead to curing and degradation products that could be regarded as comparable to those generated by the natural ageing of an approximately one hundred-year old paint film.
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Notes
- 1.
Beltracci, W., Beltracci, H.: Selbstporträt. Rowohlt Verlag GmbH (2014)
Beltracci, W., Beltracci, H.: Einschluss mit Engeln: Gefängnisbriefe vom 31.8.2010 bis 27.10.2011. Rowohlt Verlag GmbH (2014)
Arne Birkenstock: Beltracchi: Die Kunst der Fälschung. Senator (2014)
Der Meisterfälscher. 3 Sat (2014-2016)
- 2.
Kremer Pigmente: Kremserweiß in Leinöl (lead white in linseed oil) Lead white is most commonly used to imitate historical paintings.
- 3.
Kremer Pigmente: Zinkweiß in Leinöl (zinc white in linseed oil) Zinc white is known to be very reactive in oil binders.
- 4.
Filmapplicator BYK No.:2041/1197347 on HOSTAPHAN® foil (The oil paint was thinned before the application: 50 g zinc white + 5 ml Shellsol® T (Kremer Pigmente); 30 g lead white + 1 ml Shellsol® T (Kremer Pigmente))
- 5.
Oven manufactured by Memmert
- 6.
40 °C RH: 8–12 %; 60 °C RH: 6–8%
- 7.
CIEDE1976 was used to describe colour difference.
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Blumenroth, D., Dietz, S., Müller, W., Zumbühl, S., Caseri, W., Heydenreich, G. (2019). Inside the Forger’s Oven: Identification of Drying Products in Oil Paints During and After Accelerated Drying with Increased Temperatures. In: van den Berg, K., et al. Conservation of Modern Oil Paintings. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19254-9_34
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