  It has been claimed [1-6] that fractal analysis can be applied to
unambiguously characterize works of art such as the drip paintings of Jackson
Pollock. This academic issue has become of more general interest following the
recent discovery of a cache of disputed Pollock paintings. We definitively
demonstrate here, by analyzing paintings by Pollock and others, that fractal
criteria provide no information about artistic authenticity. This work has also
led to two new results in fractal analysis of more general scientific
significance. First, the composite of two fractals is not generally scale
invariant and exhibits complex multifractal scaling in the small distance
asymptotic limit. Second the statistics of box-counting and related staircases
provide a new way to characterize geometry and distinguish fractals from
Euclidean objects.

Statistical Mechanics;Physics and Society