Art conservation and art fraud: dissecting the thin blue line

Abstract

This paper examines issues relating to the process of authentication. It takes as its point of departure concerns relating to the epistemology of verification rather than analytical methods. Increasingly, conservation practice is being informed by broader cultural and philosophical discourse. For this reason a methodology for addressing issues of authentication that can incorporate issues of relative value becomes a critical professional tool. In this paper it is argued that scientific validation cannot deliver ‘proof’ but rather establishes levels of probability within a particular context. The definition of that context and the appropriate framing of evidence within that context are critic..