An unusual exhibition titled ‘Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries’ has opened at the National Gallery in London, showcasing forged works by Botticelli, Rembrandt, Holbein, and others.
It is aimed at exploring forgeries and their detection and is the first exhibition of its kind to display 40 works uncovered by the gallery’s scientific department, Reuters reports. Approximately 40 percent of the National Gallery’s collection, which holds around 2,500 paintings, has been examined using some form of technical analysis, said Ashok Roy, the gallery’s director of scientific research, to Reuters. Art historians, scientists, and restorers typically remain behind the scenes, but this exhibition reveals the skills and expertise of the gallery’s scientific department, which is considered a world leader in the field of materials and techniques of paintings from Western Europe. Modern scientific methods, such as infrared processing, X-rays, electron microscopes, and spectrometry, have helped resolve dilemmas that have plagued the gallery’s curators for years. The exhibition spans six rooms: Deception and Fraud, Transformation and Modification, Mistakes, Secrets and Mysteries, Redemption and Restoration, and a room dedicated to Botticelli. To the untrained eye, the forged paintings appear as authentic masterpieces, but beneath the layers lies a different story.
