Method for authenticating an optically variable security element , in particular a diffractive security element, said method having the steps: a) capturing an image sequence having at least one individual image of the security element by means of a sensor , in particular of a hand-held device , preferably a smartphone, tablet or PDA; b) verifying whether at least one predefined item of optical information is present in at least one individual image of the image sequence, wherein the image sequence comprises a plurality of individual images of the security element , in particular comprises more than 2 individual images of the security element , wherein it is verified using at least two individual images of the image sequence whether the security element comprises an optically variable structure, characterised in that , in step b), it is initially verified whether a predefined object is present in at least one individual image of the image sequence, wherein, when verifying whether the at least one predefined item of optical information of the optically variable security element is present, the contour of the predefined object is determined from at least one individual image of the image sequence, and wherein at least one partial region of the individual image, which is positioned in a predefined position relative to the contour of a predefined object and which comprises at least one pixel and/or at least one group of pixels of the individual image, is selected and at least one property of the at least one pixel and/or of the at least one group of pixels of the at least one selected partial region is compared with a corresponding setpoint value. a) capturing an image sequence having at least one individual image of the security element by means of a sensor , in particular of a hand-held device , preferably a smartphone, tablet or PDA; b) verifying whether at least one predefined item of optical information is present in at least one individual image of the image sequence, wherein the image sequence comprises a plurality of individual images of the security element , in particular comprises more than 2 individual images of the security element , wherein it is verified using at least two individual images of the image sequence whether the security element comprises an optically variable structure, characterised in that , in step b), it is initially verified whether a predefined object is present in at least one individual image of the image sequence, wherein, when verifying whether the at least one predefined item of optical information of the optically variable security element is present, the contour of the predefined object is determined from at least one individual image of the image sequence, and wherein at least one partial region of the individual image, which is positioned in a predefined position relative to the contour of a predefined object and which comprises at least one pixel and/or at least one group of pixels of the individual image, is selected and at least one property of the at least one pixel and/or of the at least one group of pixels of the at least one selected partial region is compared with a corresponding setpoint value. <EOS>