**6. Final remarks**

Examination of artifacts by optical means and image processing is an elegant and efficient solution. The usability of methods consists in the relevance and the large amount of data obtained by digital image processing. Other benefits such as relatively low costs, avoidance of artifact degradation, the possibility of post-data processing, easy repetition of investigations, productivity of analyses, automatic data processing, obtaining results in a timely manner, and the establishment of data archives relating to works of art and cultural heritage in general.

The prospects for developing these methods are two-way. The first one concerns the development of performance algorithms for image analysis and software applications for their implementation. The second direction is to plan some activities to create archive images of original artifacts and eventually known counterfeits.

The major conclusion is that investigating artifacts through digital image processing is a complementary method of analysis that must be applied with priority before any other invasive rule analysis. Although in some situations, image-based methods cannot substitute for more complex physicochemical analyses that are usually done with material sampling, image processing technology must be extensively integrated into decision support systems for experts and curators in the field of artistic heritage preservation.

## **Acknowledgements**

This study was supported by the Grant PN-III-P1-1.2-PCCDI-2017-0476, no. 51PCCDI/2018, from UEFISCDI-MEN.
