Is It Responsible? Guidelines for the Use of AI for Art Authentication
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.
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Is It a De La Tour? with Veronique Plesch
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.
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Is It a Velazquez? with Matthew Wilson
Today’s featured picture is called Portrait of a Man. It certainly looks like a Velazquez. But you know what question I’m going to ask. Is it? To answer this question, I've invited two guests. First, Batu Arda Düzgün, originally from Turkey, is a researcher at Art Recognition, a company that uses artificial intelligence to help authenticate artworks. With a background that spans both computer science and art history, Arda is at the forefront of applying cutting-edge machine learning to some of the oldest and most mysterious paintings in the world. Joining him is British art historian Matthew Wilson, an expert on visual symbolism and the author of several widely-read books, including Symbols in Art, The Hidden Language of Symbols, and Art Unpacked, all published by Thames & Hudson. Matthew’s work uncovers the layers of meaning behind what we see, offering insight into the codes, allegories, and visual metaphors that artists have used across centuries. Arda’s work likewise uncovers layers of meaning but in the form of complex image analysis and the use of AI. What do they have to say about the artwork featured in today’s episode? Listen to find out.
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Is It a Caravaggio? with Clovis Whiftield
**Featured in The Guardian**Caravaggio lived a violent fist of a life, but man could he paint. He is one of a handful of true revolutionaries, creating a style that was unlike anything that had come before, and was hugely influential. But he only made some 60 paintings, depending on which scholar you ask, so each is incredibly valuable. And not one has come up for auction in the last century or so. Today’s episode reveals some big surprises regarding three known versions of a painting called The Lute Player. But are all three by Caravaggio? Let’s find out in this special episode where I’m joined by British gallerist Clovis Whitfield and Art Recognition co-founder, Carina Popovici.This episode was featured in The Guardian newspaper on 27 September 2025To learn more about Clovis Whitfield, visit: http://www.whitfieldfineart.com/
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Interview with AI Expert Carina Popovici
Most episodes of this podcast will feature a special guest art expert who chooses a painting that they’d like to have analyzed—a painting with uncertain or debated authorship. We are joined by, an AI specialist who reveals the test results and we discuss them together. But here and there we’ll include an interview that is relevant to the topic of art authentication, art historical mysteries, and technologies like AI, but which steps outside of the usual format. This is one such episode. In it, I’ll be interviewing one of the founders of Art Recognition, the firm that sponsors this podcast and runs the AI image analysis tests—Carina Popovici.I wrote a feature in The Art Newspaper in December 2024 about how its analysis of The Polish Rider had solved the longstanding mystery. That was the subject of our previous episode, where my guest was Blake Gopnik. I was intrigued to learn more about AI and art analysis, and about Art Recognition in particular, which was the firm that most impressed me within this relatively young field. Many months and much research later, I was sufficiently impressed that I agreed to join Art Recognition as an advisor. This podcast series grew out of that relationship and the many mysteries it was solving. Because we’re not only going to reveal a very big, breaking news story that came from a combination of traditional research and AI analysis in the next episode. But we’ve got quite a few big news reveals planned for this season and next, so stay tuned. But first, let’s get to know the woman behind Art Recognition.To learn more about Art Recognition, click here: https://art-recognition.com/
Is It? is a brand new podcast on art history’s mysteries. In each episode, we ask the question of whether a certain painting is by a certain famous artist. These are puzzle paintings, works that have divided and confounded scholars, sometimes for centuries. To answer this question, we bring in a guest expert, a specialist in the artist in question. And we also bring in an expert in AI authentication from Art Recognition. While our guest expert is the star of the show, we’ve also conducted a cutting edge, brand new AI analysis of the painting in question—and we’ll reveal what it says in the final part of this episode. The podcast is hosted by award-winning presenter and best-selling art historian, Professor Noah Charney. We cover suspected works by Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Van Eyck and many more. So subscribe and listen for free wherever you get podcasts to find out: Is it?
This series is sponsored by Art Recognition, a Zurich-based AI art analysis firm that tests the works featured in each episode. It is produced by Urska Charney.
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