Fine Art Forensics
A Fine Art Registry® Website

Pinhead Peter Paul Biro Awakens Sleeping Giants-Sues New Yorker Magazine: and Award-Winning Writer David Grann and Takes Swipe at Fine Art Registry®
BREAKING NEWS: The self-proclaimed "art authenticator" (cough-cough) Peter Paul Biro, has foolishly thrown down the gauntlet, accusing award-winning writer, David Grann and Conde Nast (the New Yorker magazine) of defamation. A lawsuit filed by Biro (a Canadian art restorer) against David Grann, Conde Nast, and others is amateur hour at best. The Complaint contains outrageous and fallacious allegations against David Grann and the New Yorker, and other parties, with no basis whatsoever in fact.
Article, July 4, 2011

It's Official: Spain's Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation Blasts Park West Gallery: Day Divine Comedy Set NOT Signed by Dali
The following is perhaps the greatest and biggest news since Fine Art Registry® announced its huge win at trial against Park West Gallery in April of last year. We are pleased to announce that the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation in Spain has formally weighed in on the legitimacy of the Divine Comedy Set sold to Sharon Day and Julian Howard by Park West Gallery for the outrageous sum of nearly $500,000. Additionally, it is important to note that tens of thousands of other Dali prints sold by Park West Gallery bearing the same signatures as what appears on the Day/Howard set have also been sold to countless other victims aboard cruise ships and at land auctions (and VIP auctions) across the United States.
Article, May 17, 2011

Authentication of the Sample Remington Via Forensic Applications: Remington Bronze Part 4
There are 7 exhibits below providing visual and textual data regarding the authentic and questioned sample. Exhibit 1 provides the visual image of the authentic work in a grid format with corresponding horizontal and vertical coordinates. Exhibit 2 provides a similar format for the questioned sample. Please note here that the sample work has been enlarged 2x to provide a didactic image for comparison purposes. The real size is approximately 15 x 15 x 15 inches. Further, the grid could be set to a smaller format to pick up more details regarding the images.
Article, February 24, 2011

New Yorker Magazine/Peter Paul Biro & Questions That BEG Answers!: Truth to Power #38
A fascinating article entitled "The Mark Of A Masterpiece" has just been published in the world renowned and highly respected magazine The New Yorker. Teri is grateful to the author David Grann for his fine work and for including some material and videos that were a result of the investigation that Fine Art Registry® conducted in reference to Peter Paul Biro and his amazing ability to discover fingerprints of the Masters on everything he examines. If a fingerprint is needed, he will find it. FAR® began its probe into Biro and his dealings back in 2007 with some amazing results. There are more questions raised here than answered, however there will be more revelations to come!
Video, July 8, 2010

Forensic Photography - Digitally Enhanced Imaging: Art Forensics #9
Forensic photography or legal photography pertains to the taking of photographic images to provide evidence of facts or data surrounding an event. In providing appraisals to the Internal Revenue Service a photo of the appraised object is used not only to describe the nature of the object but also to substantiate that the object exists. In a court of law, photographs are used to verify oral statements and actions.
Article, February 1, 2010

Forensic Science and Fine Art Media Testing: Art Forensics #8
Fine art is created using many different media. There are close to 50 categories of fine art media including stone, paint, wood, paper, crayon, ink, plastic, fabric, steel, and so on. One merely has to visit a local museum to observe the many different ways artists have taken the materials from the environment to create their art. The list of categories is growing and perhaps never ending since new materials are constantly being developed via the march of technology and artistic creativity.
Article, January 27, 2010

Forensic Science and Fine Art Authentication, 'La Bella Principessa': Art Forensics #7
Originally identified by Christie's auction house in a 1990 catalogue as "German, 19th Century, Young Girl in Profile in Renaissance Dress", it has now been renamed, "La Bella Principessa" by Mark Kemp, a specialist Leonardo Da Vinci art historian. According to various news releases it is a genuine Da Vinci because a smudged fingerprint found on the painting revealed by a revolutionary multispectral analysis was "comparable" to a fingerprint on another Da Vinci work. The fingerprint match was determined by a self-proclaimed forensic art fingerprint expert to be "highly comparable." Others noted that there were "significant stylistic" consistencies.
Article, December 30, 2009

Art Forensics #6: The Forensic Art Expert
In the ongoing legal slugfest between PWG and FAR® a common thread or concept running through and percolating the claims and counterclaims is the notion of the expert. Attorneys, and investigators who served in a prosecutorial function claim that they are experts because they have been involved in various art crimes. Other experts lay claim because they have a special relationship with the artist, or his organization. Other self styled experts have pushed the envelope and maintained a global expertise because they possess one specific art credential supposedly capable of encompassing all things related to art.
Article, November 23, 2009

Art Forensics #5: Forensics and the Fingerprints of the Artist
Fingerprint match evidence is recognized by the legal system as one of the strongest elements in establishing the guilt or innocence of a person charged with a crime. If a person's print is on a piece of real evidence such as a gun, knife, or the steering wheel of a getaway car, it is generally accepted that the person was involved in the crime. The foundation for the forensic science of fingerprint analysis comes from its longevity of use without oppositional findings questioning its reliability.
Article, October 19, 2009

Art Forensics #4: Forensic Linguistics
In this article the focus will be on authorship determination as found through the process of composing the document by an author rather than the actual structure of letters and words. Document analysis here will focus on vocabulary used, punctuation and grammar identifiers, horizontal and vertical alignment of writing, colloquialisms, verb/noun ordering, sentence complexity, and active versus passive sentence presentation. Commonly referred to as forensic linguistics, it is also known as literary forensics or stylistics. It is both quantitative and qualitative; it uses statistics to analyze data and derives conclusions based on experience and intuition.
Article, August 31, 2009

Art Forensics #3: Handwriting Analysis
As with Forensic Science in general the concept of handwriting analysis moves in many directions and exists on many levels. Graphology or using a person's handwriting to determine or predict personality and behavior is employed extensively as a corporate tool in France, and infrequently in Britain and the United States. Its scientific stature however is not recognized. Forensic Handwriting Analysis is an accepted evidentiary tool in our legal system. As we shall see in this article it is certainly not without its share of problems.
Article, August 24, 2009

Art Forensics #2: Forensic Science and Provenance Research: Questioned Documents
Authenticating works of art is grounded in the process of scientific analysis, provenance research, and connoisseurship. Provenance research focuses on establishing a document trail indicating that a particular work was from the hand of the artist. Document authentication consists of verifying those aspects of the document which corroborate that it was created when it was supposed to be by whoever was supposed to have created it, or part of the trail of the history of the work. A second aspect of document authentication has to do with the signature on the document. Here handwriting analysis comes to bear on establishing authenticity. The focus of this article will be on document analysis rather than handwriting analysis.
Article, July 27, 2009

Art Forensics Introduction: Forensic Science under Attack by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)
The Supreme Court in 1993 issued a standard or legal precedent currently referred to as the Daubert standard which lays out the necessary criteria to allow an expert to provided testimony in a federal court. As gatekeepers, trial judges look at various criteria in allowing forensic data to be admitted in the court proceedings. Judges focus on relevancy, empirical testing, peer review, falsifiability, error rate, and consensus of opinion. Thus, an expert stating that he "feels" or intuitively he knows the evidence to be true without other experts confirming such statements would be subject to a rejection.
Article, July 13, 2009

Farid, Fractals and Fingerprinting: New Fine Art Authenticator Technology or Pseudoscience?
After centuries of having fine art authenticated by so called art connoisseurs, there is a movement toward a combination or interdisciplinary approach to authenticating fine art. Case law, IRS regulations, insurance processes and newly emerging industry standards make it clear that a consensual and scholarly approach of science, provenance and connoisseurship must be used to authentic a work of fine art.
Article, February 12, 2009

New York Post:
YOU DON'T KNOW JACK!
CSI VET FINGERS POLLOCK PRO AS FRAUD
Media, April 18, 2008

Press Release: Fingerprint Forgery and Fabrication Expert Finds Fingerprints on Alleged Jackson Pollock Painting were Forged.
Commissioned by Global Fine Art Registry, LLC., world renowned fingerprint forgery and fabrication detection specialist, Pat Wertheim, examined fingerprints.
Press, April 5, 2008

Alleged Pollock Fingerprints: An Independent Expert's Review

Peter Paul Biro fingerprint evidence in Jackson Pollock painting "Authentication" found to be invalid by veteran fingerprint examiner, Tom Hanley, commissioned by Global Fine Art Registry, LLC.

What Price Forensics? Another Possible Jackson Pollock Surfaces
Another tale involving Paul Biro "authenticating" a possible Jackson Pollock (a different one), the same fingerprint, the same Tod Volpe in the background with schemes to separate the unwary.
Article, July 24, 2007

Jackson Pollock and Teri Horton: Investigative Report
FAR Case Study on the true identity of Teri Horton's artwork, is it an original Jackson Pollock, or is she being mislead by supposed experts. Fine Art Registry news, articles and research into Teri Horton's claims
Case Study, November 15, 2006