Using DNA Encryption to Combat Art Forgery

Click on the audio player above to hear this interview.

Wolfgang Beltracchi likes to spend his free time in museums, looking for the hundreds of paintings he's sold to curators throughout the world.

But Beltracchi isn't a well-known artist. He's served time in prison for art forgery, though hundreds of his paintings still hang in museums.

Before his arrest, Beltracchi made millions of dollars from his forgeries. He is one of many forgers complicating the art market—a prominent Manhattan gallery had to close a few years ago after selling dozens of forged pieces.

Martin Tenniswood, lead scientist at Provenire Authentication, hopes his new authentication system will prevent forgeries like Beltracchi's from reaching the art market. Tenniswood is the lead developer of DNA encryption technology for artwork, technology he plans to launch next year. 

Above, American painter Charles Courtney Curran's "Three Women," (1894) below, Mark Landis' forgery.

(Art and Craft)

Above, French painter Jean-Antoine Watteau's "A Woman Lying On A Chaise Lounge," (1719) below Landis' forgery. The paintings which Landis chose to copy vary widely in both time period and style.

(Art and Craft)

Above, American painter Stuart Davis' "Houses Along a Canal" (1914-18) below Landis' forgery.

(Art and Craft)

Mark Landis at home and at work on a “Picasso”.

(Sam Cullman/Courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories)