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davidcyclebackI don't know how it would work with water and removed glue. My scenarios involved material being added.
There's a guy who removes signatures from baseballs, and the removed area is visible with a black light.
Of interesting note, you can see through some surfaces with an infrared light-- ala seeing the original sketch or painting behind a painting.
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An interesting book is 'Fake?' by the British Musuem. It's not a technical how to guide, but shows how ancient vases, paintings, furniture, sculptures were identified as fakes by the London museum. Techniques include infrared, ultraviolet, X-rays and dendrology. They determined the age of ancient wooden objects by studying the rings in the wood, knowing when great environmental catastrophies were that would show up in the rings. In another example, they determined the Ancient Greek statues were actually forgeries by the Ancient Romans.
I have an infrared viewer, but don't specialize in studying alterations issues-- which isn't to say I'm oblivious to it, just that it's not my specialty area.