Isotopes to detect false pictures

2008/09/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Giza zientziak

The physics of nuclear isotopes offers a new opportunity to distinguish between false and true oil paints. The idea is simple: if several isotopes extended by atomic bombs are in a picture, it is possible to know if the work is prior or not to 1945. In fact, these isotopes are not present in nature, they occur in the explosions of atomic bombs, and many of the atomic bombs that exploded since 1945: Hiroshiman and Nagasakin, and others in the New Mexico desert.

The analysis technique of the isotopes of the tables detects kesium-137a and extrontzio-90 in oils used after 1945. If the original picture is above, the specimens with these isotopes must be false. This technique has been used and patented by a group of Russians: Elena Braser, restorer of the Russian Museum and chemist Anfrey Krusanov. Braser himself has mentioned that it is a very useful technique, but also very limited, since a picture that does not contain the isotopes cesio-137 and extrontzio-90 is not necessarily real.