Gazette Drouot - C apencheres

THE MAGAZINE ART & PATRIMOINE
Sherlock Holmeses of art
In the Musée du Louvre, visitors to the south wing
stroll around completely unaware that in the basement,
in laboratories barred to the general public,
a number of researchers and extraordinary experts
are busy investigating and tracking down the truth
to determine the authenticity of objets d’art. Is the
museum's Egyptian head in blue glass a fake? For
eighty years, the Egyptologist community has had its
doubts about the genuineness of this statue,
acquired by the museum in 1923. To decide the
answer once and for all, the scientists at the Centre
for Research and Restoration of the Museums of
France (C2RMF) have used a jewel of technology:
"Aglaé", the Grand Louvre’s elementary analysis accelerator,
which can precisely analyse the chemical
composition of any object without having to take a
sample. "It's the only particle accelerator in the world
entirely dedicated to the study of heritage," says
Marie Lavandier, the centre's director. The Egyptian
head, which could not be subjected to the removal of
even the tiniest sample, was recently analysed with
Aglaé. The accelerator, with its 25-metre barrel,
bombards the object with ions, thus stimulating the
material, which reacts and then emits X-rays containing
the object's chemical record sheet. The composition
of the glass reveals traces of arsenic and lead
characteristic of objects made in… the 18th century!
The verdict is announced: the work is a remarkable
fake. A case solved with undeniable success by these
dedicated art sleuths. In Greek mythology, Aglaea
(Aglaé in French), the youngest of the three Graces,
symbolises radiant beauty: the perfect name for
C2RMF's jewel in the crown, one of the many cutting
edge tools available to the centre's experts.
126 GAZETTE DROUOT INTERNATIONAL I N° 19
The C2RMF, created in 1998 when the research laboratories
merged with the restoration department of
the museums of France, now employs a hundred and
sixty people divided between two sites: the restoration
workshop in the Petite Ecurie du Roi facing the
Château de Versailles, and the laboratory under the
Palais du Louvre. "Our team contains a highly original
range of professionals from all sorts of backgrounds
– chemists, photographers, physicists, radiologists,
optics specialists, archivists, computer scientists,
restorers, curators, art historians and archaeologists –,
thus enabling a multidisciplinary approach across the
board serving France's museums," says the director.
At the foot of the Louvre's venerable Pavillon de Flore,
the laboratory lies hidden behind two doors worthy
of a safe. The five thousand square metres of this
underground haunt, divided into three levels under a
vast glass roof, is a veritable hive: a dark room with
walls seven metres high, a library, a series of rooms
with small windows for the lab assistants, a control
room where five people operate the particle accelerator,
and a huge door leading to the Louvre's
surrounding underground passage, used for moving
art works around. Each year, thousands of objects
pass through the scientists' hands. Ultra-sophisticated
analysis techniques – including raking light,
infrared, UV and radiography – can reveal the framework
of a statue, the rough patches on a painting,
Designed by architects Jérôme Brunet and Éric Saunier,
the 5,000 square metre laboratory is divided into three
levels under the Louvre's Pavillon de Flore.