Carbon-14 dating in art - From fake objects to false assumptions

By Emmanuel Vartanian, physicist, and Céline Roque, art historian, Re.S.Artes Laboratory (A Scientific Approach to Art and Cultural Heritage) – Bordeaux.

Over the last few decades, carbon-14 dating has regularly been used to authenticate art objects, and has proved its worth as a tool for identifying fakes made from modern materials.  

Faced with the constant refinement of forgery techniques however, this method has its limitations, and a constant dialogue has to be kept up between scientists and art-world experts.  

Following questions posed by certain problematic objects, some erroneous ideas began to circulate, and a number of false underlying assumptions came to light. Emmanuel Vartanian and Céline Roque will confront these with scientific fact and unveil some new advances that enable them to be overcome.

Language: FR