Is this real or painted - crinoids Morocco ?

[Martinfossil]

Hi,

These crinoids from Morocco look very nice with the good contrast of the red matrix.
My question is if the seller has enhanced the red colour of the red matrix with paint or is his red colour the real and natural colour?
I hope that anyone with experience can advice me in this.
Thank you.

[Misha]

These look a bit suspicious to me,

First of all, those splotches of color around the calyces don't seem natural. A lot of those crinoids also seem to have stems made up of multiple different pieces, composited onto the matrix to make them seem more complete.

Do you have any higher resolution, closer up pictures? Those would certainly help

[daves64]

Moroccan crinoid plates like that are frequently composited and almost always painted (painted to draw tourists). I'd say neither color is the natural one, the tan might be natural, but the red is painted on. Some of the smaller stem pieces are painted over with the red.

Edited July 7, 2021 by daves64

[Mark Kmiecik]

I heard, on this forum I believe, that the fossil itself is real and has been "enhanced" with a fresh coat of paint to make it more enticing to potential buyers. I don't know if the paint can be removed to show the original appearance of the fossil. If someone on this forum has tried to they might chime in with that information. If the price is reasonable it may be worth trying to remove the paint with water, alcohol or some other solvents that won't react with the matrix or fossil.

[Wrangellian]

If you remove the paint you might reveal the ugly patchwork of the 'collage'. But at least you'd have a better idea of what you've got. What does it look like on the bottom? Painted also?