Chancery Lane’s art collection doesn’t exactly shout out, ‘Steal me! Copy me!’ from the walls. One portrait stands out though – that of Sir William Bull PC MP, admitted 1889, sensitively rendered by Arthur Acker RA.

Sir William is ours, and the thought of rogue copies is terrible to contemplate. The question is – how to protect him?

Any plans to simply turn the picture round are now firmly on hold, thanks to a new service from international law firm K&L Gates which has partnered with various organisations to provide an object-marking standard – called i2M. It can put an end to ‘faked, forged, and illicit visual art’, according to the press release.

Sir William can join the queue, though, behind K&L Gates’ own art collections in London, Paris and Berlin, the ‘synthetic DNA’ of which will be captured first – dammit.

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