A new piece of software developed by researchers at the University of Maastricht may be able to significantly cut the time it takes for art experts to authenticate a painting or spot a forgery. “Using high-resolution scans of paintings, the Authentic software builds up a library of characteristics, such as brushstrokes, colours and type of canvas used, that form a ‘fingerprint’ for a particular artist. A painting can then be compared against this fingerprint to help experts decide whether it is a fake.”