Thursday 12 October 2000

 

Art restorer and forensic analyst Peter Paul Biro compares an artist's known fingerprints to those found on a painting to establish its authenticity.

Biro scrutinizes Picasso's prints - his fingerprints.

A sample of Biro's work.  At left is 18th-century French Portrait of a Lady, as it was when brought in for restoration.

A sample of Biro's work.  Cleaning and x-rays revealed another portrait beneath the one reproduced above.

A sample of Biro's work.  The painting after the removal of the overpainted figure.

A sample of Biro's work.  Detail of the original face after restoration.

At a crime scene, one of the first things detectives do to try to find out who done it is scour the site for fingerprints.

Montreal art expert Peter Paul Biro does the same thing when trying to put an artist's name to a painting. He goes into Sherlock Holmes mode, magnifying glass in hand, and scrutinizes the painting and frame looking for fingerprints the artist might have left behind.

Artists' fingerprints can last in perpetuity. They have been uncovered on prehistoric cave paintings as well as on ancient pottery out of archeological digs.

"Painting is very messy work. Whether the medium is oil or charcoal, the artist is going to get some of it on his hands, or at some point he will touch the canvas or paper, embedding fingerprints or an entire hand into the surface," said Biro, an art restorer and forensic analyst who helps collectors find out whether they own the real thing or a fake.

In an interview last week, Biro said that he had recently used the fingerprint technique to identify the works of two famous artists, potentially worth millions of dollars.

"In two separate cases, I identified Turner's fingerprints on a large canvas in a B.C. private collection, and Picasso's fingerprints on the stretcher of a painting for a Beverly Hills client."

Although he feels certain he has correctly identified the painters as Joseph Mallord William Turner, one of England's finest 19th-century artists, and Pablo Picasso, second opinions are needed and both works have to be closely inspected by international specialists in the works of Turner and Picasso. It could be months, even years, before a final seal of approval closes the two cases.

But patience and perseverance are tools of Biro's trade. Witness the case of another unsigned Turner painting. It took nine years to get official recognition that it was an 1820 Turner painting called Landscape With Rainbow. Patience paid off when it was sold for $208,000 at Phillips, a London auction house.

The case began in 1985, when Biro, his brother Laszlo and father Geza ran an art-restoration business. The unsigned painting was brought to them for restoration, but when the customer realized how much it would cost, he sold it to Laszlo for $1,000.

As Biro's father began cleaning the surface they all realized that there was a better-quality painting under the over-painting. They also discovered a set of fingerprints, put there more than 150 years ago, on one of the trees.

As stubborn layers of dirt and paint were removed, what emerged looked like a Turner masterpiece. To verify their find, the brothers took the painting to London in 1987 to have it checked by Turner experts at the Tate Gallery.

The experts felt the work might be a painting done in the style of Turner, no more. They weren't interested in having the fingerprints checked against those in their archives.

Disheartened but still convinced they had a valuable work of art on their hands, the brothers consulted retired RCMP fingerprint expert Jacques Laliberte. They wanted to know whether the fingerprints on the painting were viable for identification - and they were.

To check them against Turner's original fingerprints, the Biros got in touch with the conservation department at the Tate and requested photographs of Turner's prints. From the photos, Laliberte was able to satisfy himself that they were a match.

But that was still not enough evidence to convince the art world of the painting's authenticity. The canvas then passed through the hands of a series of Turner experts. Verification was needed on composition, style, technique, colours and types of paints. In 1995, when a second analysis of the fingerprints was done by England's West Yorkshire police, the painting was finally acknowledged as the real thing.

Fingerprinting is only one tool in solving the mystery of unsigned works of art. A reputable forensic analyst like Biro will put the canvas through a series of high-tech scientific tests, including videography, infrared photography, laser scanning and ultrasound.

Fingerprints from the past abound, but according to Biro, the science lies in checking them for a match. He lucked out with the unsigned Turner because the Tate already had prints on file. Had they not been recorded, he would have had to go knocking on museum doors for permission to eyeball a signed work of art for matching prints.

- If you want to look for fingerprints on a work of art, all you need is a magnifying glass and good lighting, Biro says. For more information, see his Web site at www.birofineartrestoration.com or E-mail him at artsleuth@sympatico.ca.