藝術家的DNA簽名將令贗品無處可藏

The artist Eric Fischl remembers the time a friend waved a catalog at him to alert him that one of his paintings was up for auction for six figures in London. In reality, the work was a fake, but so convincing, Mr. Fischl said, “I thought I was losing my mind.”

藝術家埃裏克·菲施爾(Eric Fischl)還記得，有一次一位朋友對他揮舞着拍賣目錄，說他的一件繪畫作品以數十萬美元的估價在倫敦拍賣。而實際上，那幅畫是贗品，但是跟原作很像。菲施爾說，“當時我都要瘋了。”

Brushes with forgery like that one two decades ago, and concerns about his legacy and estate, prompted Mr. Fischl to appear in London on Monday to vouch for a new authentication system that would let artists sign their works with specks of synthetic DNA.

20年前的那幅贗品以及對自己遺產和財產的擔憂促使菲施爾於週一（10月12日）出現在倫敦，支持一個新的認證系統，它將讓藝術家們用少量合成的DNA給自己的作品簽名。

The method is being developed at the Global Center for Innovation at the State University of New York at Albany. The school said it had received $2 million in funding from the ARIS Title Insurance Corporation, which specializes in art.

紐約州立大學奧爾巴尼分校的全球創新中心(Global Center for Innovation)正在研發這種技術。該校稱，它得到了阿里斯產權保險公司(ARIS Title Insurance Corporation)200萬美元的資助。該公司專門爲藝術品提供保險。

Two years ago, the center, known for its work in bioengineering, encryption and nanotechnology, set about developing a way to infuse paintings, sculptures and other artworks with complex molecules of DNA created in the lab.

兩年前，以生物工程、加密技術和納米技術聞名的全球創新中心開始研發一種技術，給繪畫和雕塑等藝術品注入在實驗室裏創造的複雜DNA分子。

“We wanted a marker that was very hard to locate and not prone to environmental issues or tampering,” Robert J. Jones, president of SUNY Albany, said. Equally important, he added, was that artists would embrace the approach.

“我們想創造一種標記，它很難定位，不易受環境因素影響，不易篡改，”紐約州立大學奧爾巴尼分校的校長羅伯特·J·瓊斯(Robert J. Jones)說。他補充說，同樣重要的是，藝術家們能接受這種方式。

Experts say fakes have become one of the most vexing problems in the art market. Scandals like the one involving dozens of forgeries sold through the venerable Knoedler Gallery in Manhattan before it closed in 2011 are sapping the confidence of buyers, owners and artists, they say.

專家們說，贗品已成爲藝術市場最惱人的一個問題。曼哈頓備受尊敬的諾德勒美術館(Knoedler Gallery)在2011年倒閉之前，曾賣出幾十件贗品。專家們說，這樣的醜聞在打擊買家、所有者和藝術家的信心。

An objective way of marking art would be particularly attractive at a time when reliance on subjective expertise, or connoisseurship, and often-incomplete provenance, seems to be waning. Curators, artists’ foundations and independent experts now often shy away from authenticating works for fear of being sued.

如今，人們不再信賴主觀的專家鑑定和往往不完整的來源證明。所以，這種對藝術品進行標記的客觀方式尤爲吸引人。現在，策展人、藝術家基金會和獨立專家經常因爲擔心遭到起訴而拒絕進行藝術品鑑定。

“There is a deep freeze in authentications,” said Colette Loll of Art Fraud Insights, who was a consultant on the project.

“人們現在非常不願意進行藝術品鑑定，”藝術品詐騙洞察組織(Art Fraud Insights)的科萊特·洛爾(Colette Loll)說。她是這一項目的顧問。

But while automobiles, for example, have vehicle identification numbers, works by living artists enter the market without dependable standards of identification.

比如，汽車有車輛識別碼，但是在世藝術家們的作品進入市場時卻沒有可靠的鑑定標準。

The new approach, in its formative stage, would implant synthetic DNA, not the personal DNA of the artists, because of privacy issues and because a person’s DNA could conceivably be stolen and embedded, thus undermining the authority of such a marking protocol.

這種處於研發階段的新方法將植入合成DNA，而非藝術家本人的DNA，一方面是爲了保護藝術家的隱私，另一方面是個人DNA可能會被竊取和植入，從而損害這種防僞手段的可信性。

The developers said the bioengineered DNA would be unique to each item and provide an encrypted link between the art and a database that would hold the consensus of authoritative information about the work. The DNA details could be read by a scanner available to anyone in the art industry wanting to verify an object.

開發者們說，這種用生物工程技術合成的DNA將是每件作品獨一無二的標記，能在藝術品和數據庫之間建立一種加密關係。這個數據庫將持有每件作品的權威信息。藝術界的任何人若想驗證一件作品，都可以通過掃描獲得DNA細節。

Those trying to create the new standard said they had signed up three dozen internationally recognized artists, archives, foundations and museums who want to test the technology, which could be ready as early as next year.

嘗試創立新標準的人說，他們已與36個想要測試這一技術的國際知名藝術家、檔案館、基金會和博物館簽訂了協議。最早於明年，這項技術將完成開發。

Artists and owners would buy a kind of tag that they could use to apply the DNA. Early estimates by the developers say tags would cost about $150. Once applied, the DNA would penetrate the work at the molecular level, so removing the tag would not eliminate the item’s forensic signature.

藝術家和所有者需要購買一種用以植入DNA的標籤。據開發者初步估計，標籤的費用約爲150美元。一旦植入，這種DNA將在分子水平滲透到作品中，所以去除標籤也不會影響它的法律效力。

“We see it as a secure, safe and invisible solution that artists and owners can accept,” said Lawrence M. Shindell, chairman of ARIS, which is based in New York. “Our goal is to remove uncertainty from the market.”

“我們認爲它是藝術家和所有者能夠接受的安全可靠且不露痕跡的解決方案，”住在紐約的阿里斯產權保險公司主席勞倫斯·M·欣德爾(Lawrence M. Shindell)說，“我們的目標是消除市場上的不確定性。”

Potential buyers and sellers could also check items for DNA codes to see whether the items had been stolen. Doing so could block their resale by galleries and auctioneers and bring about their recovery, the supporters said.

潛在買家和賣家還可以通過檢驗DNA來確定某件作品是否是贓物。這項技術的支持者們說，這樣做可以避免贓物被畫廊和拍賣行轉賣，使作品物歸原主。

They said it was crucial that applying the tags have no impact on the work.

他們說，關鍵是，加上這種標籤不會對作品造成任何損害。

Deciphering and replicating the DNA would be all but impossible, according to Mr. Shindell. He said even sophisticated counterfeiters “would leave microscopic forensic evidence” if they tried to remove or replace the DNA.

欣德爾說，破解和複製這種DNA幾乎是不可能的，在移除或替換DNA時，甚至連高明的僞造者“都會留下細微的法律證據”。

Mr. Jones said SUNY took on the task as a public service and a possible revenue generator, though those details remain unclear. ARIS said it had no ownership of the technology, but would benefit from the greater transparency and confidence in a $55-billion-a-year market in which it sells insurance.

瓊斯說，紐約州立大學承擔這一任務是爲了公益，也是爲了獲得潛在的收益，不過這些細節仍不明確。阿里斯產權保險公司說，這項技術不歸它所有，但是如果這個年交易額高達550億美元的市場能夠變得更透明，讓人更有信心，那麼作爲這個市場的保險提供者，阿里斯公司也將從中獲益。

“It makes a lot of sense for us to be involved given that the state of New York is one of the world’s largest art markets,” Mr. Jones said. “We hope there will be financial benefits from creating the intellectual property and the process becomes a gold standard in the industry.”

“紐約州是世界上最大的藝術品市場之一，所以我們參與進來很是合乎情理，”瓊斯說，“我們希望通過創造知識產權獲得經濟收益，也希望這種鑑定方法能成爲該行業的黃金標準。”

Mr. Fischl said he wanted to assure fellow artists that the idea is “a no-brainer” for preventing forgeries of their work from being sold. He added that “authenticating a work from the very start can alleviate the pain and frustration people go through when they think they have something of great value and they really don’t.”

菲施爾說，他想讓其他藝術家們也認識到，這種方法“很簡單”，可以防止贗品被售出。他補充說，“從一開始就對作品進行認證能避免人們以爲自己擁有很有價值的東西而事實並非如此所帶來的痛苦和沮喪。”

“What’s not sexy about synthetic DNA?” he added.

“合成DNA有哪一點不迷人呢？”