Historical art mysteries, solved by students

A class project meant to last a single semester turned into a real art-history discovery, after students researching an unsigned 200-year-old painting found evidence of who really painted it.

Museums usually hire trained experts to authenticateauthenticateto gather enough evidence to prove for certain who made something and when a painting, but in this case it was teenagers combing through old letters that cracked the case.

The clue turned out to be a tiny symbol hidden in the corner of the canvas, nearly invisible under a layer of old varnish, that matched a mark the same painter used on a signed work in a different museum.

Students cross-checked the discovery against shipping records, framer's stamps and a diary entry from the painter's niece before the museum agreed to update the painting's label.

The class has since been asked to look into two more unsigned paintings in the same collection, and this time the museum is sending one of its own historians along to help.