Resumen de Crime Scene Investigation in the Art World:: The Case of the Missing Masterpiece
Katharine J. Harmon, Lisa M. Miller, Julie T. Millard
The relationships between chemistry, crime, and art are explored in an outreach activity for middle and high school students that investigates a possible art fraud. Students characterize pigment samples via spectroscopy and chemical analysis to determine whether the pigments in a questioned painting are consistent with those used by the alleged artist or are suggestive of a more modern origin. In lieu of actual paint samples, water-soluble dyes and metal salts are used as mock pigments, allowing characterization of colored solutions via UV–visible absorbance spectroscopy. Chemical tests for iron and copper further assist with pigment identification.
