Université de Fribourg

Unexpected presence of 14C in inorganic pigment for an absolute dating of paintings

Beck, Lucile ; Messager, Cyrielle ; Caffy, Ingrid ; Delqué-Količ, Emmanuelle ; Perron, Marion ; Dumoulin, Jean-Pascal ; Moreau, Christophe ; Degrigny, Christian ; Serneels, Vincent

In: Scientific Reports, 2020, vol. 10, no. 1, p. 9582

The absolute dating of paintings is crucial for tackling the problem of fake art. Investigations to authenticate paintings rely on an advanced knowledge of art history and a collection of scientific techniques. Radiocarbon dating is the only technique that gives access to an absolute time scale, but its application is limited to organic materials such as wood, canvas or natural binder....