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The European Congress of Radiology ( ECR 2011 ) is the annual meeting of the European Society of Radiology (ESR), it will be held on March 03 – March 07, 2011 in Austria Center, Vienna, Austria. Of the many applications of radiology, the most famous is its use in medicine to detect and follow up diseases. But just as x-rays allow patients to be scanned to gather information, they also make it possible to learn about the history and life of pieces of art, as well as to verify their authenticity.

Computed tomography has been used to explore human bodies to help identify the origins of their pathologies since the late 1970s, so it is not surprising to find this modality occasionally used to probe reproductions of the human figure, explained Doctor Marc Ghysels from Brussels. He is an ex-interventional radiologist who plies his trade outside healthcare, using his skills to examine antiques and artworks from all over the world, and will present the Guest Lecture ‘Slicing through antiques and works of art’ on Saturday afternoon.

“Knowledge of human anatomy is irrelevant in this case, but most sculptures pass easily through any CT scanner, generating three-dimensional images which literally ‘undress’ the art work and reveal its internal structures and secrets,” said Dr. Ghysels.

Radiological analysis of those internal structures may provide relevant information about the history of a piece, by revealing how it was made, what damage it has suffered over the years, how much restoration it has undergone, etc.

“Furthermore it can expose the many tricks used by forgers to deceive not only the discerning eye of the museum curator or collector, but also the more commonly used methods of scientific analysis,” Dr. Ghysels pointed out.

In his lecture he will present CT scans of eight antique works, selected to demonstrate how this modality can be used in the art world and how radiologists can expand their expertise when they combine it with knowledge of traditional craftwork.

“Any radiologist with a bit of curiosity and access to a multidetector CT scanner can easily use his radiological skills to further our technical and cultural knowledge about art and antiquities, and about terracotta, wood and stone statues in particular. This is an atypical application for radiology which, although  it is not new, has great potential for development as the number of authentic artworks now being found is dwindling every day and copies or fakes are invading the art market, whether in Chinese antiquities, African art or pre-Columbian terracotta,” Dr. Ghysels said.

Source: ECR