Authentication of works

The first pillar is visual examination: composition, brushwork, drawing, treatment of details, comparison with reference works. Trainees practise before authentic works and fakes, with methods to make their judgement explicit and open to discussion.

They also learn the limits of the eye: confirmation bias, the influence of a famous expert's opinion, visual fatigue.

Infrared imaging, X-rays, spectrometry, carbon-14 dating, dendrochronology, pigment analysis: the module presents what each technique contributes and what it cannot. It teaches how to put a question to a laboratory and how to read an analysis report.

Trainees spend three days in a laboratory to observe the protocols.

Documentary research traces the history of the work: catalogues raisonnés, old sales, exhibitions, correspondence, inventories. It places the work in time and detects missing links.

A workshop is devoted to the critical reading of a catalogue raisonné and to forged documents.

The report sets out the question asked, the methods used, the results, their limits and the conclusion. It distinguishes what is established, probable, possible or excluded. It is written to be understood by a judge, a buyer or an insurer.

Trainees write a full report on a case, which is discussed in a seminar.

The module studies famous cases of fakes and the expert errors that allowed them. It teaches how to stay open to doubt, to express degrees of certainty and to recognise one's limits.

Experts learn to refuse a commission when the work exceeds their competence or their independence is in question.

The Academy's reception service answers practical questions Monday to Friday, in French, English and Spanish, and can direct each visitor to the programme, scholarship or free resource that fits their situation. A guidance counsellor also offers a thirty-minute individual meeting, by appointment, to build a realistic training pathway.

Trainees' feedback is valuable: each session gives rise to a questionnaire, and the most useful suggestions are examined each quarter by the teaching committee. Do not hesitate to write to report a difficulty, propose a subject or tell us what the training has changed in your practice.