1. A method for determining the authorship of a picture, wherein the method comprises at least the following steps: storing in a database known characteristic features of the works of an artist; generating from a known characteristic feature of an artist, or a portion of the characteristic features, reference features as modifications of the characteristic features, the reference features representing deviations from the characteristic features; transferring the picture to be examined or parts of the picture to be examined with the aid of a digitizing means, into at least one data set, analyzing the data set(s) and determining characteristic features or parts of characteristic features, in particular dots, lines, dot or line groups, ellipsoids, and other geometric figures, contained in the data set in digitized form, wherein the characteristic features to be determined are stored in the database, wherein a Hough transformation is used for analyzing and determining the characteristic features of the picture to be examined or of parts of the picture to be examined, and in further step, the method determines reference features of at least one of the characteristic features or of parts of the characteristic features contained in the data set, wherein the reference features of the characteristic features are either already stored in the database or generated in the course of the method; and matching the determined characteristic features and reference features with the stored characteristic features and reference features of an artist to determine the authorship of a picture.