The ability to non-invasively investigate ancient treasures is an unconventional but highly useful application of modern imaging technology.
Wednesday afternoon, a panel of experts detailed how CT is helping the art world prove the provenance of religious statues, diagnose needed repairs for fragile art objects and uncover forgeries.
Daly
“Fakes, forgery and art theft has been a major problem throughout recorded history,” said Barry Daly, MD, professor of radiology at the University of Maryland and consultant to the Walters Museum in Baltimore.
Dr. Daly shared the story of a Dutch art collector who had paid millions for a Chinese Buddha statue dating to the 11th century AD, only to have a CT scan of the statue reveal a mummified monk inside. The discovery ultimately helped prove that the statue had been stolen from a temple in rural China in 1995, which was a disaster for the private owner.
“While private art collectors may shy away from scanning their art collection, museums are more open to discovering whether they have a true work of art or an incredibly convincing forgery,” Dr. Daly said. “Museum pieces may be more interesting as a result because fame and infamy are both crowd pleasers.”
Wood rings in reliquary
Dr. Daly also performed a CT scan on a medieval reliquary, which revealed the tree ring pattern in the wood. To the relief of the museum conservator, the ancient sarcophagus wasn’t a 19th century knock-off—it dated to 1218 AD.
Many Professionals Needed During Scans
Yaghmai
CT imaging provides documentation—or fingerprint—of precious artifacts that reveal how the item was constructed, altered or restored. Fingerprinting is also used to establish provenance to combat theft and forgeries.
“A lot of logistics and planning goes into fingerprinting a precious object,” said Vahid Yaghmai, MD, professor of radiology at the University of California, Irvine “One day a $20 million dollar violin is in Carnegie Hall, the next day, it’s in a CT scanner in Chicago.”
Considerations include security, calibrating the scanner and being ready to go once the item arrives. A team of experts including the radiologist, conservator, technologist and legal and PR people is also necessary.
Imaging a precious artifact—such as a cello—with the thinnest CT slices and highest kernel values possible can provide details of the interior, including wormholes in the wood, cleats added during restoration and the density of the wood.
Perspective From A Conservator
Close up reliquary on CT scan table
“I’m often asked by my colleagues why we use medical CT to examine museum specimens,” said Jonathan Brown, MS, Regenstein Senior Conservator at The Field Museum of Chicago. “And since it’s fast, dimensionally accurate and non-destructive, a much better question would be, why wouldn’t we use medical CT all the time.”
When it’s feasible to do so, Brown uses CT to see inside complex objects for diagnosis and treatment, to understand previous restorations and maybe to spot the occasional fake.
Brown
Brown challenged the audience to spot the fake among a series of images of ancient Egyptian cat mummies. Of the three images, two cat mummies proved to be fake—one contained stuffing and a second was filled with bones of an unknown animal.
“The medical community in Chicago has been incredibly generous with their time and facilities and we’ve found out a lot working together,” Brown said. “Get involved. If someone wants something scanned, answer the phone, say yes. You’ll have a great time and you’ll get to work on some really interesting problems.”
