Computer program developed to detect art forgery

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports researchers have developed a way to use a computer and image software to analyze a painting and determine whether it is genuine or a forgery.

The experiment was performed on 101 high-resolution scans of Van Gough paintings from museums in the Netherlands. The program analyzed the artist's brush strokes and create algorithm to describe Van Gough's style.

The researchers told the CHE that while the algorithm was pretty successful, it could still be confused by the variety of brush strokes that the artist would use in a single painting.

An algorithm to describe the way an artist paints. It reminds me of the idea that a million monkeys sitting at a million typewriters will eventually produce Hamlet; it's one of those attempts to rationalize artistic expression, to quantify it and explain it. All the better to sell it with, I suppose.

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