A long-lost painting by Raphael, rediscovered

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Over the past several years, particle physics technology has allowed researchers to authenticate artwork through their composition, without affecting the object under analysis. The latest example is The Madonna and Child, a painting on canvas from a private collection. In 2020, the Czech start-up InsightART successfully helped attribute the painting to the Renaissance master Raphael, using RToo, a state-of-the-art robotic X-ray scanner, composed of an X-ray source, Timepix photon detectors capable of taking spectroscopic X-ray images, and a robotic platform. InsightART obtained  11 high-resolution images taken at different X-ray wavelengths, enabling experts to map the elemental composition of the paint and acquire more precise information about the painting. InsightART won the ArtTech Prize 2020, an acknowledgment of the role of CERN technology in the service of art.

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