The Rembrandt Code - Identifying true old masters - and spotting the fakes - is a rarefied art. By Bijal P. Trivedi. [Wired]

I came across this article on Wired discussing a new high-technology method for identifying paintings which are the authentic works of Rembrandt van Rijn and which are products of his students or even outright reproductions. Though this technology is being applied to a low-tech medium, I think this quest for authenticity has bearing on many issues facing digital media products.

Authenticity in works of art, paintings especially, is an incredibly important factor in the valuation of the piece. Collectors of Rembrandts in particular, have historically been stymied with questions of authenticity, noting, "Over three decades, Rembrandt had about 40 pupils in his studio who emulated his style. Many of these often-anonymous student works fell into the hands of Amsterdam dealers who resold them as the real thing, occasionally augmenting them with Rembrandt's signature - forever muddying the task of attribution." This is a situation not at all unlike the proliferation of tweaked and customized and remixed audio tracks poorly labeled or in many cases passed off as the original.

The solution, surprisingly, is mathematical. "Using hi-res digital cameras and software that he wrote himself, Rockmore aims to examine the brushstrokes from Flora and 24 other works to reveal Rembrandt's unique mathematical fingerprint." The idea that even a medium as analog as painting has mathematically measurable characteristics is fascinating. Though the process of authentication for digital works is usually much simpler, expanding that capability to any work of creation is a powerful idea. In my opinion, the ideal use of this technology would be to verify authenticity for serious collectors without devaluing the much broader spectrum of art that is beautiful but not the work of a 'name brand' artist.