Art Fraud Insights, LLC works alongside top scientific experts in the field when undertaking the specialized investigation of an artwork or object.
We provide scientific analysis of artworks through our partnership with Scientific Analysis of Fine Art (SAFA), LLC. Such analyses answer questions about a work’s authenticity, provenance, state of preservation, restoration history, and technology of manufacture.
Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Cultural Heritage Science, Bard Graduate Center for Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture
Jennifer Mass received her Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from Cornell University and was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the Sherman Fairchild Center for Objects Conservation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has conducted the scientific study of works of art in museum and academic contexts for over twenty years and taught this subject in U.S. master’s degree programs in art conservation for her entire career. She formed Scientific Analysis, LLC (SAFA) in 2007 because of the growing need for the objective material assessment of objects in the art market that complements the expertise of the connoisseur and conservation assessments.
Jennifer’s research interests include the degradation mechanisms of artists’ pigments and developing nondestructive depth profiling methods for imaging buried paintings. Jennifer has published numerous articles on her research in the art conservation and scientific literature, including Studies in Conservation and Applied Physics A. She has co-edited three volumes – two volumes of Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology, and Handheld XRF for Art and Archaeology.
Jennifer gives dozens of lectures a year on her work nationally and internationally and has received awards for her research from the Italian Society for Nondestructive Testing and from the American Materials Research Society. Jennifer’s work has received worldwide media attention, being highlighted on NPR’s Science Friday and MSNBC as well as in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the BBC, the L.A. Times, London’s Daily Telegraph and numerous other national and international media outlets.
RECENT PRESS
‘The Scream’ Is Fading. New Research Reveals Why by Sophie Haigney, the New York Times, (February 7, 2020)
To Detect Fakes, Art Meets Science by Jennifer Smith, The Wallstreet Journal (February 24, 2016)
A Genuine Motherwell? Make Sure Before Buying by Paul Sullivan, The New York Times (March 2, 2012)
Rebecca Pollak; SAFA Senior Research Conservator and Independent Paper Conservator. Becca received her MAand Certificate of Advanced Study in Art Conservation from Buffalo State College. After completing an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Paper Conservation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Becca joined the scientific research department at Sotheby’s as Assistant Conservation Scientist, where she specialized in technical imaging and analysis of paintings and works on art on paper. Over the past 15 years, she gained additional experience in the study and conservation of works on paper and photographs in private and institutional labs including the Art Institute of Chicago, Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art.
Becca developed a comprehensive knowledge of artists’ materials during her years as manager and technical advisor for Kremer Pigments Inc. in New York, and has led various workshops on manufacturing historical and contemporary paint materials for conservators, historians, and artists throughout the United States. She has performed materials analysis for collectors, dealers, and museums, and has published research on American watercolors, media identification and terminology for works of art on paper, and synthetic dyes used in conservation treatment.
