AI used for forging art documents - ForkLog: cryptocurrencies, AI, singularity, the future

# AI Used to Falsify Art Documents

Artificial intelligence is helping fraudsters forge provenance documents and authenticity certificates for artworks. This was stated by insurance broker Olivia Eckleston, reports FT.

According to her, the trend “added a new dimension to the century-old problem of forgeries and fraud in the art market.”

One loss adjustment expert in the field reported receiving dozens of appraisal certificates as part of an insurance claim for a collection of decorative paintings, which initially seemed convincing.

The applicant’s mistake led the analyst to suspect a forgery. It turned out that the documents were created using an automated system — the description field for each individual work was identical.

Other industry representatives emphasized that in some cases, artificial intelligence was used maliciously — fraudsters aimed to forge provenance documentation. Incidents were also recorded where users asked neural networks to find information about their artworks, and the AI hallucinated.

Co-founder of Flynn & Giovani, Angelina Giovani, noted that AI makes it easy to create fake documents due to its working mechanics. The neural network is required to give an answer, so if enough information is provided, “somewhere LLM will guess.”

Experts emphasized that the use of artificial intelligence is a new wave in old practices. If previously people stole or forged letterheads with logos of reputable institutions, now they are applying new technology.

“Throughout my career, I have seen many fake documents. This is not a new phenomenon, but AI has made it more realistic,” said Filippo Gerrini-Maraldi, head of the visual arts department at Howden insurance company.

Gurr Johns CEO Harry Smith said that artificial intelligence has simplified and accelerated the work of fraudsters.

To combat this new phenomenon, metadata in digital documents can be checked for AI interference. This is what claims adjuster Grace Best-Deverex from Sedgwick does.

Her colleagues do the same — they use LLM tools to verify the authenticity of documents. However, doing so is becoming more difficult due to the regular development of the technology.

Recall that the US Department of the Treasury used artificial intelligence to analyze data and recover more than $4 billion obtained through fraud and misconduct in the 2024 fiscal year.