Art has always been appreciated. And every year, true art connoisseurs are ready to pay a lot of money for various objects of cultural value - paintings, statuettes, various kinds of antiques or famous authors. To establish the authenticity of the product and clarify its value, an art criticism examination is carried out. It is a very important procedure for all connoisseurs of authentic art. An art criticism examination is carried out in order to establish the presence or absence of indications of the possibility of attributing a work to the heritage of an author, determining the degree of preservation of the object, the presence or absence of restoration work, determining belonging to a certain period of time, as well as an art criticism examination will answer the question: is the examined object  cultural, historical, scientific, artistic, archaeological, or other value.

Historical and art criticism has a number of full-fledged synonyms, namely:

• cultural expertise;
• art criticism;
• historical and cultural expertise.

Art criticism examinations are most often conducted in criminal cases, including those related to the theft of works of art and antiques, in customs cases of smuggling, criminal cases of fraud, criminal cases of copyright infringement, attempted non-return of objects of artistic, historical and archaeological heritage, illegal arms trafficking, destruction or damage of historical and cultural monuments.

In comparison with the term "art criticism examination" more often used in forensic investigative practice, another term - "historical and art criticism examination" is methodologically more accurate, since in addition to works of art, objects that are not works of art or represent a certain value, which are valued due to their advanced age and rarity, are often received for this kind of examination.

The main tasks of the art criticism examination are attribution of the work, object or thing under study (determining the time, place and other circumstances of its creation), establishing its authenticity, cultural or historical value, sometimes establishing a specific author of the work.

The objects of art criticism examination are so diverse that it is hardly possible to make a complete list of them. These include:

• art criticism of postage stamps and postcards;
• art criticism examination of paintings (paintings, drawings, icons, graphics);
• art criticism of the sculpture;
• art criticism of works of decorative and applied art (porcelain, ceramics, earthenware, majolica, terracotta);
• art criticism examination of the authenticity of works of art;
• art historical examination of ancient or old weapons;
• art criticism of antique furniture;
• art criticism of clothing of the last century;
• art historical examination of ancient coins;
• art criticism of photographs;
• art criticism of the book, manuscript;
• art criticism of musical works.

This list can be continued indefinitely. Art criticism will never sit idle because humanity was very versatile.  Using forensic terminology, we can say that the objects of art criticism are objects, products and texts that have historical, cultural or artistic value.

In a forensic sense, identification, diagnostic and classification tasks are solved when appointing and conducting forensic art criticism and non-judicial research.

Among art experts, it is customary to distinguish between attribution and expertise. In the first case, it is talking about an art criticism examination in order to study the subject and determine its individual and classification characteristics, on the basis of which it takes its place in museum or library collections, receives its artistic or historical status. It doesn't matter if it's a painting or a vase, a spear or a crown. With the help of an art criticism examination, it is possible to find out the time, place and other circumstances of the creation of a given cultural or art object.

Another important task of art criticism is to establish the authenticity of the object of art under study, to establish its cultural or historical value, and sometimes to establish the specific author of the work. Thanks to such examinations, many works by famous authors were found after many years of absence. Indeed, during the wars, many museums and vaults were looted. And only many years later, these works of art were found again, had passed an art criticism examination and were published again. If it were not for the art criticism, many antiquities and works by famous authors could have sunk into oblivion. Experts diligently studied art objects and found the true sources of their appearance, established the authenticity of the objects and proved to the whole world that these art objects are not lost to the nation and the world community.

The art criticism examination is carried out in cases where attribution data or information about an object is questionable and, for one reason or another, must be properly confirmed by cultural experts.

The specificity of this type of expert activity is that until recently there were practically no professional forensic art experts with practical experience in conducting art criticism in criminal cases. This is due to the fact that art experts of a wide profile are rare, the same specialist is unlikely to be able to simultaneously know in detail the history of porcelain production, the peculiarities of the manufacture of Moscow old printed books and changes in the composition of the author's soils of paintings of the second quarter of the XIX century. Deep knowledge of the history of art necessarily implies a narrow specialization, therefore, in most cases, specialists who do not have special expert training participated in conducting art criticism examinations. Only the most reputable art experts from those whose narrow professional specialization the alleged author of the work belongs to are involved in the art criticism of a particular work.

When conducting an examination of works of Russian art, when the estimated valuation exceeds 100,000 US dollars, we consider it necessary to reach a consensus of several independent experts.

In most cases, the appointment of an art criticism examination is associated with the need to confirm the attribution of artistic or antique objects and an assessment of their monetary value, but not always.

Experts rely heavily on the results of technological research, but only art experts can say whether a given thing is characteristic of a given artist or not, and only they have the right to name the author.

The questions that are put to art experts (culturologists) vary quite a lot depending on the nature of the objects under study.

So, an expert gunsmith (an expert in historical weapons studies) most often answers questions:

• Is this item (weapon) of historical and cultural value?
• Does this weapon belong to a combat weapon?
• What is the state of preservation of the object (weapon) at the time of the historical and art (cultural) expertise?
• What is the estimated price of this item (weapon)?

The art expert on jewelry most often receives items with the assay of the master and questions about the authenticity of the item and its estimated value. Approximately the same issues are solved by an expert on paintings: in most cases, he has to check the information available to the owner of the work and give an estimate of its monetary value. With the development of the antiques market, the need for historical and cultural expertise increases from year to year.

The art expert of the Department of manuscripts carries out the following types of work during the examination of handwritten books and archival materials:

• determines the authorship and authenticity of documents (art object);
• dates materials (scientific literature on paper signs is actively involved in the examination of handwritten books and a number of archival materials; filigree and stamps are studied);
• defines the place of compilation and existence of materials;
• describes the defects of preservation, the physical condition of the bindings and materials of the art object;
• examines the marks, ownership records, bookplates and stamps, determines the status and significance of the mentioned persons (objects of art);
• solves the issue of the degree of uniqueness of materials (availability of lists, including in other archives; study of language features);
• determines their scientific significance and gives a monetary assessment of art objects.

The manuals for investigators and judges contain the following generalized questions resolved by art experts:

• Does this work, object, or thing represent artistic or historical and cultural value?
• Does this work, object or thing have an artistic purpose, or does it not belong to the objects of art?
• What is the time and place of creation (production or manufacture) of this work, object or thing?
• Is this work an original or a copy (replica, stylization, later forgery, imitation, compilation), is it unique or serial?
• What kind of art or craft (school) does this work belong to?
• What is the state of preservation of the work?
• Has this work been subjected to alteration (restoration, editing), which one?
• What is the estimated monetary value of the work?
• Is the author of the submitted work a specific person?

On the other hand, the forensic and methodological components in the conclusions of judicial historical and art criticism examinations made in institutions of a non-expert profile are often insufficiently expressed. There are cases when the conclusions of art experts, when solving questions about attribution or authorship of works, only state the opinion of an expert, and do not act as the result of a multi-stage study, the description of which would allow another expert or specialist to verify the reliability and validity of the conclusions drawn.

Most forensic art criticism examinations are complex in nature, which is due to the integrative nature of the tasks facing the expert. In many cases, a cultural expert has to examine the materials of an artistic product, the signature or brand of the author, the manner (style) of writing, signs of later exposure (spoilage, alteration, restoration). Not everyone, even a large museum, and not every library can afford to purchase expensive analytical equipment for physical and chemical measurements, not to mention the shortage of good electron microscopes.

We offer a wide range of consulting and expert services to owners of works of art, antiques and other types of cultural property or items that, in your opinion, may be of any value. Having a unique art and expert base, we provide our clients with the maximum range of services.

For conducting an art criticism examination you need to contact our office and the value intended for the study in order to conclude an examination contract. The contract will clearly state the questions that you want to get answers to. You leave the value intended for research for safekeeping in the company's office, which is noted in the contract. The time of the examination depends on the amount of work and is determined individually in each case, as a rule, the examination lasts at least two weeks. The examination is carried out by experts who have extensive experience in performing such work.

After the expert completes all research and analytical work, the accumulated material is summarized in an expert opinion, to which the documents of the experts confirming their authority are attached. The expert opinion is certified by the company's seals and has full legal force to justify purchase and sale transactions or other purposes. We recommend conducting an art criticism examination, especially before making a decision on the purchase and sale of expensive paintings, in order to avoid negative consequences for both the buyer and the seller.