Evening star., 1936-03-22
BY c. PATRICK THOMPSON.

BY c. PATRICK THOMPSON.
TT LAY on a bench in the new Scot
land Yard of the art realm in
London-clearing house for art
Il treasures passing between old
world and new-and locked innocently
up with its painted face at the scien-
tific sleuths who had third -degreed it
in vain; a remarkably fine fourteenth
century panel of the Virgin and Child.
The Utropak microscope had shown
on its Illuminated slide in vivid detail
the different layers Of wood, paint and
printing and the cracks, too. A faxed
crack Is likely to stop short too soon
in the thickness of a painting. But
these cracks seemed to be the work of
centuries. They went all the way
down, as they should.
A marvelously delicate mechanism,
which by polarization brings into vision
details imperceptible under orthodox
conditions of light, had probed at the
vulnerable part of every faxed paint
ing; the pigments. The apparatus gave
the pigments a clean bill of health.
The sleuths put the panel in the
X-ray frame and aimed the tube at it.
The machine sang high, the air tingled,
the invisible rays bombarded the panel,
passing clean through it and imprint
ing an image of everything in their
path. In the viewing screen the ex-
perts examined the radiograph. That
tumble of light and shade to their ini-
tiated eyes was chart revealing grain,
glue, worm holes. gesso. paint-every-
thing. Nothing showed there to shake
the panels bland assertion of gen.
uineneSs.
Yesterday that panel might have
been discharged with an apology for
unwarranted suspicion. Then. an ac-
cepted and authenticated art treasure,
1t would hang in a celebrated museum
or millionaire collectors art gallery.
But today
Try the microscope camera" The
lens winked and soon probing eyes
searched a reproduction of the Vir-
gins face enormously enlarged. "Ha,
look! The eye!" A flaw showed in
the brushwork That suggested the
work of a copyist. Would the frame
yield secrets which the paint success
fully concealed? They loosened a
piece. Lo, a cotton fabric, such as was
not known in Europe until much later
than the fourteenth century.
The Game Is Up.
One more stage In the scientific in
vestigation process and the chief of
the art detectives could say that what
had looked to be a fourteenth century
Italian had proved to be nineteenth
century London.
The large and ramified and in
credibly active tribe Of the art takers,
practitioners of what is probably the
most lucrative of all international
rackets, have to get up very early in
the morning now to beat the new art
investigating set-up in the scientific
department Of the famous Courtauld
Institute in the British capital. The
machines and devices are formidable
enough but even more formidable are
the controllers-an Anglo American
German alliance in the persons OF DR..
p. D. Ritchie, renowned chemist from
the research staff of I. c. J., the
British heavy chemical trust; DR.. D.
v. Thompson Of Harvard and Yale,
leading authority on the methods OF
medieval craftsmen, and DR.. H. Ruhe-
mann, former head Of the restoration
department of the Kaiser-Friedrich
Museum in Berlin.
Faker Still in Business.
But any one who thinks that either
men or machines have put the art
faker out of business simply does not
know that gentleman or the tricks Of
his trade-in which there Is much
more than meets even the X-ray eye,
as the aforementioned incident indi-
Gates. What happens to the works Of
his corrupt genius after he has ex-
changed them for cash Is usually o
matter of indifference to him.
More than half the battle of sue
cessful art fake coup Is in the build
ing up of the right psychological at
moSphere, so that the question Of sub
mitting the alleged works Of art to q
scientific test and analysis never arises.
In short, In most cases an art fake
picture, sculpture, manuscript or
antiques the raw material OF q
confidence trick.
Or friend, with his passion for max
ing several rare things grow where
only one grew before, works over
very wide field. He is adroit at aging
statues in bronze and marble with
silver nitrate, acids, vitriol, baking
and earth. He is very keen on tapes
tries and textile hansings generally
they can be aged quite easily; and
what he rejoices in is q genuine but
damaged piece which he can restore
(but seldom, now, to defeat the violet
ray and the spectroscope) and sell far
more as piece In excellent condition.
He's Afraid Of Science.
Ivory carvings and statuettes he
works over lovingly with bitumen, to-
bacco juice and heat; and If he works
to restore a real old but damaged
piece, he knows he must at all costs
keep the eventual buyer away from a
scientific testing sst-up, for the violet
ray win Immediately betray his work
by showing 1t brilliant yellow against
the whiteness Of the weathered por.
ton.
He likes TO make small additions to
s