Advanced Art Authentication in Oil Paintings Using Precise 3D Morphological Analysis of Craquelure Patterns

The development of scientific technology for art authentication have elicited multidimensional evidence to distinguish forgeries from original artworks. Here, we analyzed three-dimensional morphology of cracks that contain information such as painting features of artworks using an optical coherence tomography (OCT). The forgeries were produced by an expert from the original oil paintings with cracks that occur as paint drying, canvas aging, and physical damage. The parameters such as shape, width, and depth were compared based on cross-sectional images of original and fake cracks. The shapes of original cracks were a rectangular and an inverted triangle, but fake cracks were a relatively simple inverted triangle. The original cracks were as deep as the thickness of the upper layer and mostly have ‘thin/deep' or 'wide/shallow'. The fake cracks were observed as 'thin/shallow' or 'wide/deep'. This study will improve the understanding of the crack characteristics and promote development of techniques for art authenticity.