What can a historic black and white photograph tell us about the original colours of a painting? A case study on Edvard Munch's The Scream (1910?)

We present a computational method that uses historical black-and-white photographs combined with recent multi/hyperspectral imaging to detect colour changes in artworks caused by exposure to environmental conditions or other factors over time. The method is based on the comparative study of a historical black and white photograph with a corresponding image derived computationally from the spectral data cube of the most recent acquisition with a spectral camera, by simulating the capture mode based on the sensitivity curves of the film. The proposed method is completed with the necessary calibrations and refinements of the simulation. In this paper, we present the application of the method to the painting of Edvard Munch's The Scream (1910?) located in the MUNCH Museum in Oslo, of which a historic black and white photograph was taken with orthochromatic film in 1938. The comparison revealed significant differences in lightness, indicative of colour changes, such as fading in the yellow areas and unexpected brightening in the blue areas, a phenomenon not previously reported. The results provide new insights into the material ageing of The Scream and offer a valuable opportunity to study a historical photographic document that captured the painting only a few decades after its creation, preserving evidence of its original appearance that is no longer accessible through direct visual observation. Furthermore, the methodological approach demonstrated here broadly applies to other cultural heritage objects for which historical photographic records and modern spectral imaging are available, providing a non-invasive, data-driven framework for tracking colour and material changes over time.