Conducting research is the dominant strategy that allows to authenticate more paintings than all other authentication methods, techniques and technologies combined.

The crucial question is: where does this research have to be performed? In the art authentication field, about 10 percent of the material is now available on the web, and the other 90 percent of the data exist mostly in paper, microfilm and microfiche form. Therefore, in order to perform authentication research, you must have direct in-person access to the relevant libraries and archives.

Depending on what artist or art gallery you are researching, the information might be located in Florence, Italy, at the Instituto Nazionale di Studi sur Rinascimento, or it could be at the Süleymaniye Public Library in Istanbul, Turkey, or at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, UK, or at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, or in Moscow, at the Russian State Art Library, or it could be found in Amsterdam, in Madrid, at the Frick in New York or at the Tama Art University Library in Tokyo.

This clearly illustrates that to perform efficient and productive art authentication research you must have a network of researchers located in multiple countries, with authorized library access, and speaking the native languages.

The secret behind our success in having authenticated a large number of artworks and having solved difficult cases is that we have art researchers residing in 23 countries and speaking 21 languages.