African art authenticity - Permanent exhibition at the Museum of Art and Science in Milan

www.ArteAfricanaAutenticita.com  (ultimo aggiornamento: 04/04/2008)
 
 


Fondazione Gottfried Matthaes
 

The Ascertainment of African Art Objects
on scientific basis
A section of the Museo d’Arte e Scienza


 

  

The importance of the ascertainment of the age of African art objects

Specific analyses made by the  laboratory

Some views of the African art exhibition

 

  

MUSEO D' ARTE E SCIENZA   (P.za Castello)
 via Q. Sella,4 -20121 Milano- 
Info: Tel:+390272022488     e-mail: info@museoartescienza.com

 

The present Museo d’Arte e Scienza was founded in 1990 as a didactic museum with the purpose of helping art collectors distinguish authentic items in all fields of antiques from copies and fakes. For this purpose have been added to the exhibition some clearly indicated non authentic objects.

Some of the objects on exhibit came from the teaching collection of a renowned school of art opened in Dresden, Germany, in 1906 by the Kurau and Matthaes families. 

The "African" collection of this school, which represents the core of the 300 objects displayed, was put together in the years between 1906 and 1926, when Dresden, famous for its artistic traditions, was the capital of modern European painting.

This collection of the Milan Museum, with its documented 100-year history, is therefore one of the oldest in Europe.

( more details on www.Matthaes.org  )

 

 

 

Acknowledged value
of the museum’s scientific laboratory and its methods
for determining authenticity


 

Attitudes towards and use of scientific methods are influenced by local laws and customs.

Basis of judgment: the situation in Italy (where the museum is located)

The prime institution for the fight against forgery and imitations is the Guardia di Finanza or Financial Police. The most recent catalogue on the determination of authenticity in art, published by the same in June 2007, contains an exclusive six-page presentation of the scientific laboratory of the Museo d’Arte e Scienza in which its methods for dating paintings, furniture, and objects in ivory and other materials are illustrated in detail and their validity, in effect, endorsed.

 Judicial proceedings. The probatory value of the spectroscopic dating method is crucial to the outcome of civil and penal judgments involving the determination of the actual age of art works.

The art market: the percentage of unauthentic art works currently on the market is very high. As a consequence a section of the trade rejects scientific methods out of economic necessity. Furthermore, when dating tests give negative results, dealers often tend to maintain that it is not the art work that is at fault but the scientific test result, or that the method is unknown!!

 Art lovers and investors. Copies and fakes will continue to be offered as originals as long as buyers of art refuse to follow the same line of conduct adopted when acquiring other “products”, that is to say insisting on a dependable guarantee of the object’s authenticity as the condition for its purchase. It is senseless to content oneself with the personal opinions of experts alone in this age of technology and science. The art market will become trustworthy only when the art lover becomes a connoisseur and, as envisaged by the law, demands a valid certificate.
  

 

 

 

 

 


The Museum laboratory’s mission is to improve existing scientific methods and elaborate new methods for the ascertainment of the authenticity of art objects. The laboratory’s instruments and know-how for the determining of authenticity are at the disposal of collectors, art experts, restorers, art galleries and museums. (The staff of the laboratory, who speaks the main European languages, is at your disposal for any explanations).

The laboratory of the Museum of Art and Science is a non-profit facility
and is independent from every point of view.
 

 

Specific analyses made by the  laboratory:
Wooden Objects - Scientific age dating of african woods

The Dendrochronology and C14 dating methods are inapplicable or undependable for over 90% of African artefacts. African woods do not show growth rings and the C14 method does not permit reliable dating for objects less than 350 years old. This situation has been known and acknowledged for over 50 years.
 

Spectroscopy is the only method available for dating African wooden objects.

 

The ascertainment of type and age of wood

spectroscopic dating and spectrographic classification of wood
 www.spectroscopyforart.com

 
 

Surface test for the verification of the use of already old wood

A section of the laboratory


 

The value of expertise on art in the scientific age

The judgement of a renowned expert or a famous auction house has, at times, the magic power to push an article’s market value up by as much as a thousandfold. Thus a fine piece of furniture, a painting or an African mask may just as easily cost €1,000 or €1,000,000. This disconcerting difference in value estimates is becoming increasingly common in the international market. This would be conceivable if the appraisal were based on meaningful and verifiable data. Unfortunately this is not always the case.

€ 4.500  
 Authentic

  

€ 5.000.000
 Auction of June 18, 2006


Over the centuries, well-to-do families and museums the world over have accumulated an unimaginable quantity of precious art treasures of incalculable commercial and art historical value. It is widely held, however, that over half of these works are not authentic. In the absence of scientific methods, such conclusions were based mainly on opinions.
A critical application of the new and accurate methods for ascertaining authenticity to this immense cultural heritage without the consent of its curators is neither thinkable nor desirable.
On the other hand, with the Internet and other media invading the homes of collectors and investors worldwide, it is inevitable that false assertions regarding technical methods for determining authenticity are revealed for what they are. By discrediting scientific analysis, the art market certainly also harms itself. As a result, buyers and investors are increasingly inclined to make their purchases from large and relatively reliable auction houses. There is a tendency in all sectors and small dealers are forced to close down. But it is precisely the art sector which could escape this trend.

 Today gallery owners and art dealers are, in fact, in a position to complement their expert opinions with accurate scientific certificates, thus providing a more dependable guarantee of safer and fairer purchases than the large auction houses. Attitudes, as well as guarantees, need to be changed and scientific analysis should be seen as a useful and advantageous instrument and no longer as an obstacle or a threat.

 There already exists a valid method, the IR Spectroscopy, since decades the most widely used analytic method in the chemical industry and in scientific research laboratories.

Get further and detailed information from our web site:  www.SpectroscopyforArt.com

 

African art objects as an investment

Tribal art occupies a decidedly special position respecting other fields of antiques. A fine piece of furniture, for instance, even if resulting not authentic, remains nonetheless a useful and decorative item of furniture. Instead a mask or a figure which is found to be a fake becomes just a dubious and worthless piece of carved wood.
Only authenticity lends value to a black African art object.
 

 

 

 

 

 

All the wooden objects on exhibit have been dated
using the IR spectroscopic method.

 

 

 

Short description of the natural and scientific foundations
of the spectroscopic dating of
wood
 

The essentials in brief

Infra-red spectroscopy is not a new method or a new discovery. New is only its application for the ascertainment of age and authenticity in art. It has been used for decades the world over by all chemical and pharmaceutical companies with thousands of instruments and with the same programme and equipment as the ones used by the laboratory of the Museo d’Arte e Scienza. Its extreme reliability, accuracy and facility of use have made the IR Spectroscopy in all fields where it can be applied, the number one scientific method.

Spectroscopic dating is based on two well-known factors:

·         All the natural materials on earth, including those used for creating art objects, are compounds of specific molecules.

·         Some particular molecules undergo changes with the passage of time.

The IR spectrum of wood shows its molecules or groups of molecules as peaks and valleys (Figures 1, 2). Signs of age caused by evaporation, oxidation and new combinations cause the lowering of some absorption peaks and, to a lesser extent, a shift in the same (Figure 3).
This dating method allows therefore two possibilities for the evaluation of the spectrum, each one already offering good results singly.

1 – The graphic evaluation of the curve (Spectrography)
 Right from the start of this research, the spectrographic measurement of the angle (α) formed between peaks of different heights permitted a dating accuracy of +/- 20% and these findings were communicated at the time, around 1995,  to a number of European museums and institutes.
 

 

  

Figure 2
 

Figure1

 

 

 

2 – The evaluation of frequency shifts      (Spectroscopy)

The discovery of shifts in absorption frequencies in spectroscopic analysis has boosted accuracy over the years to an unexpected extent and was inexplicably high in the first few years.

(Figure 3) - The diagram to the left is only one example of the many characteristics of a spectrum.


At present we are attempting to trace this accuracy, as well as the independence from climatic conditions, to biological programmes inside the cellular nucleus of the tree. The incredible precision of these types of biological programmes in general are well-known and understandable for the growth of wood. An answer to the question why the ageing of wood must also be programmed can be supplied only by the evolution of cellular research.


 The cell of trees, contrary to the cells of animals, is highly protected by a wall of cellulose, a hydrocarbon. Cellulose is extremely resistant to water and wood cells as well as datable wooden material are still existent in excavated Roman ships.
 
  Figure 4

Research in collaboration with a German
archaeological museum (1995).


               
Generation of reference tables to relate spectrum data to wood age:
 
The assignment of a spectrum to a specific wood species and to a specific age required the measurement of a great quantity of wooden objects of certain dating. This research, which called for many years of work on the part of qualified personnel was made possible only by the close and benevolent cooperation of international museums which began around 1993. The collaboration of some art museums terminated around 1995, since their curators feared there could be negative consequences for their collections. The Gottfried Matthaes Foundation, proprietor of the Museum, is, like the P. Getty Foundation, a non-profit organization at the service of art. Our cooperation with technical museums has continued.

 

The application of spectroscopic analysis for the dating of organic materials is patented
(It. Patent Nr. 01266808 - G. Matthaes, 1993)

 

NEW !

 Good news for friends of antique objects of art:
Ivory is datable!

Ivory object, Africa

Buddha temple, China

The term “ivory” comprises today not only elephant tusks, but also the tusks and horns of other animals and some types of bones. What distinguishes all types of ivory are their hardness and durability, characteristics due to their chemical composition.
 For the most part ivory is made up of inorganic substances, the age of which is not measurable. There is also a presence of organic substances which undergo change with the passage of time following biological laws.

Infrared spectroscopic analysis identifies the molecules present in ivory enabling the inorganic substances to be clearly distinguished from the organic ones. For organic substances it is possible to apply focused analytical methods to selected and measurable molecules.

The spectroscopic curve permits the unmistakable recognition of the various kinds of ivory and therefore the elaboration of specific calculations for the dating of each type (Fig. 1 - 2).
 

Fig. 1

Fig. 2


Important! The molecules constituting ivory cells are not protected by walls like wood cells. Ivory samples for dating need to be appropriately stabilized immediately after they are taken.

The application of spectroscopic analysis for the dating of organic materials is patented
(It. Patent Nr. 01266808 - G. Matthaes, 1993)

Instructions on how to take ivory samples for dating

A)        The ivory object is sent to the laboratory of the Museum in Milan. This procedure allows to take the sample with the minimum and invisible damage.
B)         The ivory sample is taken by the owner of the object. For the dating we need a minimal fragment of ivory (10 mm3 volume - mm 3x3x1) which can be taken from the edge or a corner of the object with a very sharp knife or a small coping saw.

The obtained fragment must be put into a piece of paper, to be folded carefully and mailed directly to the Museum laboratory. Price for one measurement: 95 Euros, $ 125.

 

Ivory - the distinction of materials 

Spectrographic tests for the ascertainment of the material

ivory

horn

bone

Microscopic tests for the ascertainment of the surface, patina and wear

Since the year 2007, all types of ivory can in fact be dated by spectroscopy.

 

Excavated African ceramics

microscopic tests

remains of slip

petrified roots

 

ascertainment of authenticity  through the analysis of the encrustations left by the soil

a) authentic encrustations
b) artificial encrustations with lime, cement or glue

 

 

Stones

microscopic and macro photographic tests on:

micro crystallizations, remains of earth, cracks, petrified roots, wear;

spectrographic analyses on earth, encrustations and colours

(a)

(a) micro crystals and remains of earth

(b)

(b) remains of dried roots

 

African Bronzes

Microscopic and macro photographic tests on patinas, corrosion and casting core

The enlarged aspect of an authentic and antique surface.

Remains of casting core. The core proves the uniqueness of the object.

Corrosion layers of the excavated bronze horse (red cuprite and green malachite).

Chemical and spectrographic analyses

spectrographic curve of:
a) clay from an authentic core
b) false core with glue 

spectrographic curve of:
a) green patina of malachite
b) artificial green colour



The patina

spectrographic test of the patina composition

microscopic and macro photographic tests for the ascertainment of wear and damages caused by time

a) patina based on lymph of trees with natural additives
b) synthetic varnishes

craquelure of the black patina

 

flaking of patina and abrasions

 
 

microscopic tests and spectroscopic analyses on colours, encrustations, wear and additional material


The research of restorations and additional parts with compound reflexography

the red waves of reflexography reveal the replacement or the restoration of wood

on the right the plaster or the replacement of an arm

 

 

PRICES: the average cost of analyses is 75 Euro for each test; some tests are conclusive in telling fake and authentic items apart, such as wood dating and tests on the encrustations on pottery and bronzes.

 

Useful information for the evaluation of
African art collections

The scientific laboratory of the Art and Science Museum of Milan receives orders from all over the world for the dating of African art objects from a wide range of collections and dealers.An analysis of the results of spectroscopic dating provides an interesting clue to the quality of private and professional collections at both the national and international level.
For example: in the 4 months from May to August 2006 the laboratory analysed 506 African art objects representing 8 different large orders, 3 of which from major private collections, 2 from medium-sized private collections and 3 from art galleries (single datings were not considered for statistical purposes)

The results are shown below:  

Wood age /
Year of production
 

Average age (in years)
 

Number of items from private collections
 

Number of items from galleries etc.
 

Authenticity
 

  

Before 1900

120

7

9

a

1900 - 1925 

90

20

24

b

1925 - 1945

70

97

109

c

1945 - 1960

50

42

39

d

1960 - 1975

35

61

45

e

1975 - 2005

15

32

21

f

 

 

Total 259

Total 247

 

Authenticity: legend (excluding appraisal of artistic value)
 a) Rare and authentic items  - b) Highly credible items - c) Good probability of authenticity
 d) Further investigation advisable  - e) Only very few objects of this age authentic
 f) Almost certainly fakes

Please note: the relatively high percentage of copies and fakes present in the collections of art dealers and other experts is not to be attributed to an insufficient knowledge of the subject. Even the finest experts are often in doubt about the authenticity of items they examine. The explanation is simple and compelling: 80 % of the figures and masks available on the market today were produced in about 70 years between 1890 and 1960, and in this brief span of time these objects did not always develop visibly evident signs of age due to wear, atmospheric conditions or damage by insects etc.

Only the natural process of the wood’s decay, measured by scientific tests, permits certain dating.

Prov.: E.J. Pfifferfeld Collection (fake)

 

Provenance
as guarantee of a good buy in African art  
 
 In most cases the provenance indicated is the collection to which an item originally belonged. The most significant collections of African art are owned by museums. The presence of copies in museums is a well-known problem, despite the valid experts at their disposal.
Collectors of African art are generally self-taught and have learnt their skills by trial and error. Over the years, non-authentic items are sorted out and sold on the market. This is why the risk attached to the purchase of single objects coming from collections is very high. Of interest, instead, are items offered for sale on the occasion of the liquidation of entire collections of note. Given the perfection reached today by fakers, the only safe way to ensure a good buy is offered by scientific spectroscopic age-dating, a precise and low cost method, easy to apply and, for important objects, by the scientific determination of authenticity analysing the patina and the material. 

 

some views of the exhibition

     

Room 14

 Woman's world

 Subjects treated in the room: wedding gifts, the position of woman in the society, motherhood, fertility, kitchen utensils, feminine features masks, the Baulé’s wooden brides

some views of the room


 


 

     

 Rooms 15 -16

Subjects treated in the room 15:  Masks' world -masks meaning, masks with many faces, masks inspiring respect, zoomorphic masks, memorial masks.
Subjects treated in the room 16: The Cult - oracles, divining plates, oracles with a mouse, the priest and the diviner – funeral cult, funerary statues, memorial heads, shrines

some views of the rooms

 

 

 

 Room 17

 Didactic room

 Subjects treated in the room: items for the authenticity recognition – the mutual influence of the contact between the western world and the African continent

some views of the room

 

 

 

 

     

 Room 18

 Man's world

 Subjects treated in the room: the men’s meeting houses, the hunter – symbols of power, musical instruments, coins  

some views of the room

 

 

 Selections of objects (pages no.3 and 4) from the Museum's collection



 

 


Why it is indispensable to age-date important African art objects

 A duty towards the culture of the Dark Continent


 The opinion of the market:
“Age is not important for determining the authenticity of African art objects.”

This assertion is drawn from a famous article of 1974 by Henri Kamer, the renowned African art expert and dealer active in Paris and New York. It is persistently cited today by other art dealers, experts and auction houses.
 

This statement denying the importance of age is, however, refuted and undermined by Kamer himself in the same article, in his definition of authenticity. Kamer writes: “The date of creation for ancient works of art is surely the most important element, although at times it is difficult to determine with precision. Contrary to what one would think, the authenticity of a [good] African piece has no relationship to its date of creation.”  
 

Only with the addition of the small word “good”, which he undoubtedly had in mind, does the above article become sufficiently clear, coherent and acceptable and Kamer’s assertion comprehensible and irrefutable. 

All African art cognoscenti had concurred on one point up to now: an African art object could only be considered authentic if it was created by a Black African sculptor for cult purposes and used for religious rituals. This assertion was a kind of dogma.

It is undeniable that the intensity of African faith, and thus that of religious rituals, has been continuously transformed by Western tastes and lifestyles. With art history so contingent on time, scientific dating assumes a crucial role. The facileness with which African art experts, in contrast to those of other art sectors, refute art historical arguments is comprehensible. Connoisseurs of paintings, furniture, silverware etc. have usually followed specific university courses or carry on family traditions and therefore tend to regard the age and stylistic period of an object as valuable clues.
African art experts, on the other hand, were colonial officials in the past century, and more recently businessmen or technicians sent to the regions of Black Africa by Western firms.

Refuting age dating thus means refuting the art history of Black Africa and seriously damaging the value of those collections which have been built up over generations on the basis of widely acknowledged principles.

If we overlook the age, and everything this implies, of the individual masks and figures in the possession of collectors, we destroy the joy of collecting and risk turning African art into just another form of investment. Fortunately the number of devotees of Black African Art opposed to this forced development is strongly on the rise. The scientific methods in existence up to 10 years ago, the C14 method and dendrochronology, were not applicable to African Art produced in the last centuries. Since 1995 there has been molecular spectroscopy for dating and classification of African woods.

 

NOW OPERATIVE !

Branch of the Milan scientific laboratory for determining the authenticity
of valuable antique art objects


The announced laboratory in Germany to serve central Europe is
now operative for the taking of samples from wooden objects to be dated and for the issuing of certificates.
 
 Please contact Dr. Martin Matthaes
 +49 (0) 17676305108 – mm@museoartescienza.com

The house, which has belonged to the Matthaes Foundation (Museo d’Arte e Scienza) for 45 years, is situated on the shores of Lake Constance, near Lindau.
 

Other requests may be sent, as always, directly to the Milan laboratory at the following address:

Museo d’Arte e Scienza
 Via Q. Sella 4 – 20121 Milano
Tel. 0039 02 72022488
Fax 0039 02 72023156
e-mail: info@museoartescienza.com

  

 

 

 

The Founders and the permanent staff
of the Museo d’Arte e Scienza

   
 
   
 

Gottfried Matthaes
 Founder and  President

Giovanna Cozzi Matthaes
 Co-founder

  
 
     

Dott. Chim. Peter Matthaes
 Lab. Director and CTU

 Patrizia Matthaes
 Administration		 Silvia Mayer
 Language and Communication		 Dott. Avv. Martin Matthaes
Lawyer - International Law
 
 
Chiara Civardi
First lab assistant		 Roberta Delmoro
Art Historian (Freelance)		 Marta Cugnasca
 Data processing		 Sonia  Checchini
Conservation
       

 

 


MUSEO D'ARTE E SCIENZA
FOUNDATION G. MATTHAES - At the service of the Art  
via Q. Sella, 4 -20121 Milano-  Piazza Castello
Opening Hours: Mon.- Fri.: 10-18       Entrance: Euro 8 - red. Euro 4
 Info: Tel:+390272022488. Fax:+390272023156.  e-mail: info@museoartescienza.com

 

OTHER  SITES OF THE MUSEUM OF ART AND SCIENCE: 

www.MuseoArteScienza.com - Sections of the "Museo d'Arte e Scienza": 6 rooms dedicated to the ascertainment of authenticity in art and antiques, 5 rooms for The "Treatise on Painting" of Leonardo Da Vinci and Leonardo's activities in Milan, 5 rooms dedicated to African Art and Buddhist Art, 2 Scientific Laboratories.

www.LeonardoDaVinciMilano.com - two permanent exhibitions: "Leonardo Citizen of Milan" and  "Appreciating Art through the Eyes of Leonardo" from his "Treatise on Painting".

www.AuthenticAfricanBronzesandCeramics.com -  dedicated to the authenticity of African artworks in bronze, stone and pottery. The scientific laboratory of the Museo d’Arte e Scienza has developed valid methods for telling authentic African objects from copies and fakes.

www.ArtAndScienceHandbook.com - The most complete and scientifically valid guide to ascertaining the authenticity of European and non-European antiques on an objective basis (540 pages and more than 2000 colour illustrations in 3 volumes and 3 languages)

www.Paintingsauthenticity.com - Information about the authenticity of modern paintings and antique paintings.

www.AntiqueFurnitureAuthenticity.com - A list of possible methods for determining the authenticity of furniture based on objective factors.

www.Excavatedartauthenticity.com - "A list of all the possible ways of determining, on the basis of objective factors,  the authenticity of excavated pottery, glass or bronze items from Southern Italy, the Mediterranean Basin, China and South America.".

www.SpectroscopyforArt.com - Scientific method for the dating of the wood and identification of the wood type used for art objects. Determination of their authenticity through analysis of colours, binders, pigments and other organic substances.  

www.C14spectrodating.com - Spectroscopic measurements complementing dating obtained with the C14 method that appears uncertain or impossible.

www.DendroSpectroChronology.com - Spectroscopic measurements complementing the uncertain results of dendrochronological dating.

www.Matthaes.org  - The history of the G. Matthaes Foundation from the opening of the painting school in Dresden in 1906 up to the Museum "Arte e Scienza" in Milan.

www.CopiesAndFakesInArt.com - Ample further descriptions for ascertaining the authenticity in art for the individual fields of antiques.

www.IvoryAuthenticityAndAge.com - Ivory, bones and horns can now be spectroscopically dated and recognized with precision.

www.LeonardoTeacherofPaintinginMilan.com - An abridged and illustrated edition of the “Treatise on Painting”.

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