The United Nation's International Atomic Energy Agency is now using nuclear science to help countries crack down on illegal trade in counterfeit art.
The Vienna-based agency has teamed up with experts from France's Louvre museum and 14 other countries across Europe, South America, Africa and Asia to identify authentic artworks from phoneys.
The reaction from shooting a beam of neutrons or protons at a sample area of an artwork reveals a lot of information that help scientists identify the origin and age without causing damage to it. Even the minutest analytical quantities can be traced safely and accurately.
In an initiative, for example, neutron activation and ion beam analysis performed at the Louvre exposed a portrait of Renaissance French potter Bernard Palissy as a fake.
IAEA chemist Matthias Rossbach says law enforcement personnel could use portable elemental analysers at borders to help combat art trafficking.
The agency plans to extend nuclear analysis this year to Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Cuba, China, Malaysia, Syria, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Croatia and Hungary, with technical assistance from France, Germany, Greece and Poland.