The Kunstmuseum Basel has confirmed that a Paul Gauguin self-portrait, titled *Portrait de l’artiste par lui-même* (1903), is an authentic work by the French painter, despite decades of scrutiny. The painting, held by the museum since 1945, was subjected to scientific analysis—including pigment testing, radiography, and infrared reflectography—at the Bern Academy of the Arts after amateur art sleuth Fabrice Fourmanoir claimed it was actually painted by Gauguin’s friend Ky-Dong Nguyen Van Cam. The tests showed the pigments date to Gauguin’s era, but also revealed overpainting on the face, possibly done between 1918 and 1926, though the museum found no evidence of intentional forgery.
This matters because the painting’s authenticity had been questioned for a century, dating back to its 1924 auction appearance and a 1928 exhibition where it was labeled a “putative self-portrait.” The museum’s scientific findings, combined with its inclusion in the Wildenstein Plattner Institute’s catalogue raisonné, reaffirm the work’s place in Gauguin’s oeuvre and resolve a long-standing attribution debate. The case also highlights how modern forensic techniques can settle provenance disputes, even when historical overpainting complicates the picture.