Is It? The Art Mystery Podcast

In this special episode, we chat with Steve Berry. Steve is the mega bestselling author of thoughtful art and artefact treasure hunt thrillers. He has sold over 26 million books and counting, selling an average of a book every thirty seconds. His thrillers are deeply researched and include a note from the author section clarifying what has been changed to suit the plot, so that the reader will be clear on what is fact and where the fiction begins. Noah was Steve's expert consultant for the novel "The Omega Factor," which features Jan van Eyck's "Ghent Altarpiece." For this episode, Art Recognition tested the famous Judges panel from the altarpiece, which was stolen in 1934 and never recovered. Or was it? A conservator in the 1970s theorized that the replacement panel, painted by infamous restorer (and art forger) Jef van der Veken might actually be the stolen panel, painted over to surreptitiously return it to the cathedral of St Bavo from which it was stolen. Art Recognition's AI image analysis will determine whether this was the case, or if the missing panel is still out there. Along the way Steve and Noah chat about writing, research, van Eyck...and Noah introduces Steve to AI image analysis.

 

To learn more about Steve Berry and his books, click here: https://steveberry.org

To learn more about Art Recognition, click here: https://art-recognition.com

To learn more about "The Ghent Altarpiece" consider reading Noah's book, "Stealing the Mystic Lamb: The True Story of the World's Most Coveted Masterpiece."

In this episode, we’re turning our attention to the work of Mahmoud Sa'id, one of the most important and influential figures in modern Egyptian art. Trained in Europe yet deeply rooted in Egyptian culture, Sa’id created a body of work that blends academic technique with a distinctly local vision. His paintings occupy a central place in the history of twentieth-century Egyptian modernism—and they also raise important questions about attribution, variation, and legacy.
 
To discuss a painting that she selected for AI image analysis, I’m joined by Jehane Ragai, emeritus professor of chemistry at the American University in Cairo. Professor Ragai is a pioneer in the scientific analysis of artworks, with decades of experience applying chemistry and materials science to questions of attribution, authenticity, and conservation. Her work has been especially influential in the study of modern Egyptian painting, where scientific evidence can play a crucial role in clarifying complex art-historical and market questions. She’s the author of two excellent books that are sitting on my shelf: "The Scientist and the Forger" and "Technical Art History."
 
I’m also joined by Batu Arda Düzgün, AI Developer at Art Recognition, where he works at the intersection of machine learning, visual analysis, and art authentication. Batu develops systems that analyze artistic patterns at a level of scale and precision impossible for the human eye alone, offering new tools for understanding authorship, consistency, and deviation within an artist’s oeuvre.
 
Let's ask the question: Is it a Sa'id?

This episode of Is It? the art mystery podcasts looks at a small painting at the Philadelphia Museum of Art which is largely attributed to Jan van Eyck: "Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata." But is it actually by van Eyck? To discuss this and the results of the cutting-edge AI image analysis by Art Recognition, I'll speak with Till-Holger Borchert, director of the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen, and an authority on van Eyck. 
To see the painting in question, displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art click here.
To see the other version of the painting, displayed at the Sabauda Gallery in Turin, click here.
To learn more about Till-Holger Borchert, click here.
To learn more about Art Recognition, click here.

This episode is about the Guidelines on the Ethical Use of AI for Image Analysis in Art Authentication. AI is everywhere, but that means that the term is being used with sometimes reckless abandon. For any serious field—like art attribution—it’s important to lay out recommendations for how best, most transparently, and most effectively to use AI.
 
These guidelines were developed jointly by Art Recognition and the Center for Art Law (with a little help from me), and they offer a framework for how artificial intelligence can be used responsibly, transparently, and collaboratively in the authentication of artworks. To discuss the guidelines, I’ve invited Carina Popovici, co-founder of Art Recognition and a past guest on this podcast, and Irina Tarsis, the founder of the Center for Art Law. The three of us were the main drivers of these guidelines, with significant feedback and input from a variety of others, many lawyers working with the Center for Art Law.
 
See the Guidelines themselves by visiting https://art-recognition.com/ or https://itsartlaw.org/ or direct download here.

Today’s mystery centers on a painter of light and silence—Georges de La Tour. His candlelit saints and beggars are hauntingly still, so perfect in their quiet intensity that they almost seem modern. But as with many great artists, the line between what’s real, what’s a copy, and what’s an outright forgery can get blurry. To help us untangle this mystery, I’m joined once again by Carina Popovici, co-founder and CEO of Art Recognition, the Swiss company using artificial intelligence to authenticate artworks. And with us for the first time, my own former professor at Colby College, art historian Veronique Plesch. Together, we’re going to test a painting that just might be by one of France’s most enigmatic masters.