Forensic Art Analysis Using Novel Reflectance Spectroscopy and Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry Instrumentation

Questions about faked artwork today provide a useful context for introducing analytical methods in both non-science and chemistry major courses. Instrumental multivariate analyses are ubiquitous in chemistry, but time or budget constraints often leave students with inadequate “real” data sets. A set of experiments are presented that use non-destructive, optic-fiber reflectance spectrometers and a novel, low cost pyrolysis interface for chromatography or spectroscopy. Its application to the analysis of works of art is described here for the first time.