Jennifer Mass

Well, I have been working on this painting for three years now. And in general, it is my role to have data and not necessarily have an opinion. But after spending 30 years, my entire career, looking at works of art, of course, I do have an opinion. And I have to say that that I started out appropriately scientifically skeptical.

And in literally the past month or so, I am starting to feel quite positive, quite confident about this work.

So traditionally in the art market, there'll be one or two art historians that will be the deciders, that every painting has to go before them. And yes, the Van Gogh Museum has played that role, absolutely. And in some sense, their job, very appropriately, is to always say no, because they are really protecting his reputation and our understanding of history of his work.

But they have changed their minds over time. And it's all a matter of the information that we can present the museum with, just so we can go beyond connoisseurship, which is absolutely critical. And none of the technology and science that we do is ever going to replace the connoisseurship. But it is also critical in terms of coming up with a positive attribution.

And so the LMI group that I'm working with, they are profoundly data driven. And so the type of materials data that I collect and techniques on the paintings, that's just part of the data that we're collecting on an artwork.

It absolutely is. And I think what's fascinating about Van Gogh is that he's done approximately 900 paintings, and yet in the public eye, we get to see the same 70 to 100 paintings over and over again. And there's so much more to the artist than that. And so this painting, while it might look unusual, for example, compared to Starry Night, it actually fits in

perfectly with what he was doing in this particular point in his career, turning back to the earlier palette he used in the Netherlands.

I started out appropriately scientifically sceptical and in literally the past month or so, I am starting to feel quite confident.