Why are van Gogh's paintings slowly turning white?

Something's different about Vincent van Gogh's work.

It's been puzzling art curators and experts for a long time, but scientists at the University of Antwerp discovered the reason why some of van Gogh's most prized works of art are turning white.

It's the plumbonacrite!

Vincent van Gogh's Wheat Fields Under Cloudy Sky originally featured bold reds. But scientists at the University of Antwerp discoved that the red lead paint used to create the vibrancy contains a mineral compound that fades in the light. Credit: Courtesy of WikiCommons
Also known as red lead, plumbonacrite is suspected to be one of the first synthetically-made paints known to man, and van Gogh was a particular fan of the stuff. In many of his paintings he used bold colors — including the red hue — which apparently degrades like a Gobstopper candy when exposed to light.

To figure out how red lead was changing colors, the Belgium researchers took a tiny white piece of van Gogh's Wheat stack under a cloudy sky. They examined the white speck under a microscope and fired x-ray lasers through the sample to determine what minerals it contained.

Turns out that speck of paint was originally red.

more

http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-03-09/why-are-van-goghs-paintings-slowly-turning-white