Authenticity and Art Crime (AAC - 15EC)

This joint minor is offered in collaboration with Leiden University and Erasmus University Rotterdam and open to students from these. Education will take place at all three universities.

Beyond the aesthetic pleasing nature of art it is mainly its authenticity that determines its perceived and economic value. The question if an artwork is authentic involves visual analysis, provenance research, legislation, the art market and physical and chemical analysis in an art historical context. The complexity of this question is abused by criminals to create forgeries and sell them as authentic pieces, causing considerable economic and cultural damage.

This course offers students both a conceptual and a practical introduction to the increasingly complex issues involved with authenticity research and art crime. It gives an overview of the philosophical, theoretical and practical perspectives relevant for this interdisciplinary research.

In the first part of the minor the students will get introductions into the art historical, scientific and economic aspects of the field. The students will learn what the term authenticity means in different contexts and how it can be approached from provenance research and connoisseurship. The material character of art works (raw materials, creation, degradation and restauration) will be discussed as will be the scientific methods to study them and to detect forgeries. Finally, the art market and its actors will be discussed, as well as its consequences for the perception of art and its ethics.

In the second part of the minor the students will apply the knowledge obtained in the first part in a case study of an artwork whose authenticity is an open question. Here the students will work in interdisciplinary groups from the different universities and study the object and its past from a scientific, art historical and economic perspective.

Students who have followed this minor will be able to:

• Understand the nuances of the different concepts of authenticity involved with authenticity research.
• Describe the material character of cultural heritage objects and interpret the results of physical and chemical analysis techniques used to investigate them.
• Describe the art market, its seminal actors, structure, and operation and the role of authenticity in it.
• Analyze the challenges presented by potential forgeries by interpreting different sources.
• Formulate an interdisciplinary problem definition, synthesizing monodisciplinary perspectives on the problems taken from art history, law, cultural economics, criminology and material science.

Make sure to register to this joint-minor. After the registration is closed you cannot change this anymore.

Beside an on time registration via eduXchange, please provide a 300-word motivation (before the deadline of registration) and a significant achievement inside or outside of academia, on why you would like to take part in the Minor, how it fits within your current study program and/or will be helpful for your future career plans and send it to MinorAAC-MSE@tudelft.nl.

No prior knowledge in any of the fields of the minor is required, as the basics will be repeated in class, but students will have to be willing and able to learn quickly and study independently..

For questions regarding this selection process, you can contact MinorAAC-MSE@tudelft.nl.

Student at Leiden University, TU Delft or Erasmus University Rotterdam?
Check the eligibility matrix to see if your bachelor’s degree programme offers access to this and other minors at https://www.tudelft.nl/minor.

Student at another educational institution?
External students cannot register via EduXchange. Interested in this minor, read the whole registration procedure at https://www.tudelft.nl/minor.

For information about the courses, visit the TU Delftstudy guide.

This joint minor is offered in collaboration with Leiden University and Erasmus University Rotterdam. This means education can take place in multiple locations. Want to know more about joint minors? Visit https://www.leiden-delft-erasmus.nl/en/education/minors

The minor will consist of a series of lectures and workshops at the three universities. This will teach the students the theoretical knowledge they will need to analyze and understand real-life cases. Additionally, during the interactive workshops, this knowledge will be implemented in real-life situations. For instance, by going to the TU Delft laboratories, the students will see how technical research is done and will be invited to engage with certain techniques themselves. Furthermore, there will be field trips. The examination will vary between the separate courses and focus on the students formulating their own thoughts either in Essays or in a Portfolio reflecting on the learning progress.

Check the detailed overview of courses, learning activities and study load at https://www.studyguide.tudelft.nl/