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Libby Sheldon is an Art Historian and author, specialising in the scientific analysis of paintings.

Academic career
Sheldon attended the Colchester High School for Girls and graduated from University College London with a BA in 1974. She subsequently obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in 1976. She was a lecturer in art history at UCL, specialising in the analysis of the materials used in paintings and was in charge of the painting analysis unit. She has contributed papers on scientific analysis of paintings to a number of journals including Burlington Magazine, Art Matters, Netherlands Technical Studies in Art and Analytical Chemistry. She provided research services on paint samples for the Making Art in Tudor Britain project.

Forensic and other results of analysis

 * Sheldon gave evidence against Robert Thwaites who was convicted of forging Victorian paintings.
 * She subjected the Streatham portrait supposed to be of Lady Jane Grey to scientific investigation and concluded that it was of Tudor orign. This portrait has been accepted as authentic by the National Portrait Gallery, London. She established that the inscription on the painting was contemporary. She concluded that the pigments used, including a type of yellow pigment rarely found after 1600, were appropriate for the 1500s.
 * She was also able to confirm that a painting - A Young Woman Seated at the Virginals - thought to be a forgery was by Vermeer. The painting arrived in a Jiffy bag and after being authenticated, left in a specially-made box and with two bodyguards. It was subsequently sold at auction by Sotheby's for more than £16m - the first auction sale of a Vermeer for more than 80 years.
 * Using pigment analysis, she confirmed the date of a painting of Horatio Nelson sold by Christie's in 2005 for £164,000.
 * Sheldon appeared in the second series of Fake or Fortune where she analyses the layers of paint on a potential Van Dyck painting - portrait of Queen Henrietta Maria, as St Catherine - showing that the overpainting included a pigment not available during van Dyck's lifetime.
 * She appeared in the third series of Fake or Fortune when she looked at pigments used on a painting which purported to be by Chagall.
 * She appeared on the Culture Show in March 2013 when she analysed paint on a possible Van Dyck, concluding that they were consistent a mid 17th century date.
 * Sheldon appeared in the 4th series of Fake or Fortune when she performed scientific and technical analysis on 3 little paintings ostensibly by LS Lowry.

Publications

 * Sheldon L., Macaro G., ‘'Materials as Markers: how useful are distinctive materials as indicators of Masters or Copyists?'' European Painting 15th-18th Century. Copying, Replicating and Emulating, CATS Proceedings, I, Copenhagen, Archetype Publications 2014.
 * Sheldon, L. “A Marriage of Methods: Exploring Gilbert's Ordinary and Extraordinary uses of Watercolour and Gouache Techniques”, in ed. Spike Bucklow and Sally Woodcock, Sir John Gilbert, Art and Imagination in the Victorian age Ashgate 2011.
 * Sheldon L. “Colour, Texture and Original Appearance: New discoveries and re-evaluations of Tudor and Jacobean painting practices” December 2010: paper delivered at National Portrait Gallery conference Tudor and Jacobean painting: Production, Influences & Patronage.
 * Sheldon, L., ‘Combing, texturing and other hidden effects in paintings of the 16th and 17th century: purpose and perception’ (research poster, published in postprints). Presented at the National Gallery Conference, 30th Anniversary of the National Gallery Technical Bulletin, September 2009.
 * Sheldon, L., Costaras N., Johannes Vermeer’s ‘Young woman seated at a virginal The Burlington Magazine, February 2006, vol. CXLVIII no. 1235, p.89-97.
 * Clark. R, Burgio L., Sheldon L., Smith, G., Pigment Identification by Spectroscopic Means: Evidence for the Authenticity of the Painting 'Young Woman Seated at a Virginal' as the 36th Vermeer Painting (co-authors:) Analytical Chemistry, 77, 1261-1267, 2005
 * Sheldon, L., Costaras N., Johannes Vermeer’s ‘Young woman seated at a virginal The Burlington Magazine, February 2006, vol. CXLVIII no. 1235, p.89-97.
 * Clark. R, Burgio L., Sheldon L., Smith, G., Pigment Identification by Spectroscopic Means: Evidence for the Authenticity of the Painting 'Young Woman Seated at a Virginal' as the 36th Vermeer Painting (co-authors:) Analytical Chemistry, 77, 1261-1267, 2005