In this special episode, we chat with Steve Berry. Steve is the mega bestselling author of thoughtful art and artefact treasure hunt thrillers. He has sold over 26 million books and counting, selling an average of a book every thirty seconds. His thrillers are deeply researched and include a note from the author section clarifying what has been changed to suit the plot, so that the reader will be clear on what is fact and where the fiction begins. Noah was Steve's expert consultant for the novel "The Omega Factor," which features Jan van Eyck's "Ghent Altarpiece." For this episode, Art Recognition tested the famous Judges panel from the altarpiece, which was stolen in 1934 and never recovered. Or was it? A conservator in the 1970s theorized that the replacement panel, painted by infamous restorer (and art forger) Jef van der Veken might actually be the stolen panel, painted over to surreptitiously return it to the cathedral of St Bavo from which it was stolen. Art Recognition's AI image analysis will determine whether this was the case, or if the missing panel is still out there. Along the way Steve and Noah chat about writing, research, van Eyck...and Noah introduces Steve to AI image analysis.

To learn more about Steve Berry and his books, click here: https://steveberry.org

To learn more about Art Recognition, click here: https://art-recognition.com

To learn more about "The Ghent Altarpiece" consider reading Noah's book, "Stealing the Mystic Lamb: The True Story of the World's Most Coveted Masterpiece."

In this episode, we’re turning our attention to the work of Mahmoud Sa'id, one of the most important and influential figures in modern Egyptian art. Trained in Europe yet deeply rooted in Egyptian culture, Sa’id created a body of work that blends academic technique with a distinctly local vision. His paintings occupy a central place in the history of twentieth-century Egyptian modernism—and they also raise important questions about attribution, variation, and legacy.

To discuss a painting that she selected for AI image analysis, I’m joined by Jehane Ragai, emeritus professor of chemistry at the American University in Cairo. Professor Ragai is a pioneer in the scientific analysis of artworks, with decades of experience applying chemistry and materials science to questions of attribution, authenticity, and conservation. Her work has been especially influential in the study of modern Egyptian painting, where scientific evidence can play a crucial role in clarifying complex art-historical and market questions. She’s the author of two excellent books that are sitting on my shelf: "The Scientist and the Forger" and "Technical Art History."

I’m also joined by Batu Arda Düzgün, AI Developer at Art Recognition, where he works at the intersection of machine learning, visual analysis, and art authentication. Batu develops systems that analyze artistic patterns at a level of scale and precision impossible for the human eye alone, offering new tools for understanding authorship, consistency, and deviation within an artist’s oeuvre.

Let's ask the question: Is it a Sa'id?

This episode of Is It? the art mystery podcasts looks at a small painting at the Philadelphia Museum of Art which is largely attributed to Jan van Eyck: "Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata." But is it actually by van Eyck? To discuss this and the results of the cutting-edge AI image analysis by Art Recognition, I'll speak with Till-Holger Borchert, director of the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen, and an authority on van Eyck. 

To see the painting in question, displayed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art click here.

To see the other version of the painting, displayed at the Sabauda Gallery in Turin, click here.

To learn more about Till-Holger Borchert, click here.

To learn more about Art Recognition, click here.

This episode is about the Guidelines on the Ethical Use of AI for Image Analysis in Art Authentication. AI is everywhere, but that means that the term is being used with sometimes reckless abandon. For any serious field—like art attribution—it’s important to lay out recommendations for how best, most transparently, and most effectively to use AI.

These guidelines were developed jointly by Art Recognition and the Center for Art Law (with a little help from me), and they offer a framework for how artificial intelligence can be used responsibly, transparently, and collaboratively in the authentication of artworks. To discuss the guidelines, I’ve invited Carina Popovici, co-founder of Art Recognition and a past guest on this podcast, and Irina Tarsis, the founder of the Center for Art Law. The three of us were the main drivers of these guidelines, with significant feedback and input from a variety of others, many lawyers working with the Center for Art Law.

See the Guidelines themselves by visiting https://art-recognition.com/ or https://itsartlaw.org/ or direct download here.

Today’s mystery centers on a painter of light and silence—Georges de La Tour. His candlelit saints and beggars are hauntingly still, so perfect in their quiet intensity that they almost seem modern. But as with many great artists, the line between what’s real, what’s a copy, and what’s an outright forgery can get blurry. To help us untangle this mystery, I’m joined once again by Carina Popovici, co-founder and CEO of Art Recognition, the Swiss company using artificial intelligence to authenticate artworks. And with us for the first time, my own former professor at Colby College, art historian Veronique Plesch. Together, we’re going to test a painting that just might be by one of France’s most enigmatic masters.

Today’s featured picture is called Portrait of a Man. It certainly looks like a Velazquez. But you know what question I’m going to ask. Is it?

To answer this question, I've invited two guests. First, Batu Arda Düzgün, originally from Turkey, is a researcher at Art Recognition, a company that uses artificial intelligence to help authenticate artworks. With a background that spans both computer science and art history, Arda is at the forefront of applying cutting-edge machine learning to some of the oldest and most mysterious paintings in the world.

Joining him is British art historian Matthew Wilson, an expert on visual symbolism and the author of several widely-read books, including Symbols in Art, The Hidden Language of Symbols, and Art Unpacked, all published by Thames & Hudson. Matthew’s work uncovers the layers of meaning behind what we see, offering insight into the codes, allegories, and visual metaphors that artists have used across centuries. Arda’s work likewise uncovers layers of meaning but in the form of complex image analysis and the use of AI. What do they have to say about the artwork featured in today’s episode? Listen to find out.

**Featured in The Guardian**

Caravaggio lived a violent fist of a life, but man could he paint. He is one of a handful of true revolutionaries, creating a style that was unlike anything that had come before, and was hugely influential. But he only made some 60 paintings, depending on which scholar you ask, so each is incredibly valuable. And not one has come up for auction in the last century or so. Today’s episode reveals some big surprises regarding three known versions of a painting called The Lute Player. But are all three by Caravaggio? Let’s find out in this special episode where I’m joined by British gallerist Clovis Whitfield and Art Recognition co-founder, Carina Popovici.

This episode was featured in The Guardian newspaper on 27 September 2025

To learn more about Clovis Whitfield, visit: http://www.whitfieldfineart.com/

Most episodes of this podcast will feature a special guest art expert who chooses a painting that they’d like to have analyzed—a painting with uncertain or debated authorship. We are joined by, an AI specialist who reveals the test results and we discuss them together. But here and there we’ll include an interview that is relevant to the topic of art authentication, art historical mysteries, and technologies like AI, but which steps outside of the usual format. This is one such episode. In it, I’ll be interviewing one of the founders of Art Recognition, the firm that sponsors this podcast and runs the AI image analysis tests—Carina Popovici.

I wrote a feature in The Art Newspaper in December 2024 about how its analysis of The Polish Rider had solved the longstanding mystery. That was the subject of our previous episode, where my guest was Blake Gopnik. I was intrigued to learn more about AI and art analysis, and about Art Recognition in particular, which was the firm that most impressed me within this relatively young field. Many months and much research later, I was sufficiently impressed that I agreed to join Art Recognition as an advisor. This podcast series grew out of that relationship and the many mysteries it was solving. Because we’re not only going to reveal a very big, breaking news story that came from a combination of traditional research and AI analysis in the next episode. But we’ve got quite a few big news reveals planned for this season and next, so stay tuned. But first, let’s get to know the woman behind Art Recognition.

To learn more about Art Recognition, click here: https://art-recognition.com/

This episode of Is It? dives deeply into one of art history's enduring mysteries: The Polish Rider. A star attraction at the Frick in New York, it has long confused scholars. Is it entirely by Rembrandt? Mostly? Is it derivative or even a forgery? The brilliant art historian and critic Blake Gopnik is my guest to dive into this fascinating topic and much more, including Blake's new book, "The Maverick's Museum: Albert Barnes and His American Dream."

Blake Gopnik is not just an art critic. He is one of the most electrifying minds writing about art and artists today. You might know his name from the New York Times, The Washington Post, Artforum, The Daily Beast—the kind of publications that don’t just review art, but shape the conversation around it. Blake is also the author of the monumental biography Warhol—a 900-page deep dive into the life, myth, and mechanics of America’s most enigmatic artist. It’s a book that doesn’t just profile Warhol—it reframes him, challenges the clichés, and makes you see the man behind the silver wig with totally fresh eyes.

This painting is what first brought Art Recognition to my attention: I wrote a feature in The Art Newspaper in December 2024 about how its analysis of The Polish Rider had solved the longstanding mystery. Even better, the AI analysis perfectly synced with what most scholars had already thought, providing a level of certainty that this art historical mystery was finally solved. Many months and much research later, I agreed to join Art Recognition as an advisor.

In most episodes of Is It? the result of the AI analysis will only be revealed live, during the podcast, by an Art Recognition specialist...and then I discuss it with them and with my special guest expert. This episode is an outlier in that we already knew the result and therefore do not have an AI specialist appearing. My guest, Blake Gopnik, was interested in exploring this painting together, and so this is one of the only episodes without the traditional "reveal."

Blake is one of my favorite authors and thinkers on art, and our discussion is wide-ranging. I highly recommend his new book, which you can order here.

To see the painting featured in this episode, The Polish Rider, click here.

Is it a Van Dyck? That’s the question we seek to answer in this episode. The painting in question is one of several versions of a Portrait of Don Diego Messia Felipe de Guzman, some of which are by Anthony van Dyck. But is this one? To answer this question, my guests for this episode include Prof. Dr. Nils Büttner, a distinguished art historian specializing in the visual culture of Germany and the Netherlands from the 15th to the 17th centuries; and Alita de Feudis, an art historian affiliated with Art Recognition, a Swiss technology company specializing in AI-driven art authentication.

To learn more about the picture in question, go to this website: https://art-recognition.com/case-studies/anthony-van-dyck-the-portrait-of-don-felipe-de-guzman/

To read a scholarly article by Dr. Büttner and the Art Recognition team on this picture, go to this website: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.kunstgeschichte-ejournal.net/622/3/Buettner%2C%20de%20feudis%2C%20popovici2.pdf

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