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This buddha has a very authentic looking patina - bronze or possibly brass. Can anyone help identify the authenticity of the patina?

Your photos indicate red soil clinging to the object indicating it may have been dug in an Ultisol, i.e., red clay soil, the color due to the presence of iron. Ultisols can be very acidic and are prevalent in southeastern China and Southeast Asia. The acidic soil conditions may account for the pitting and patina depending upon the metal composition. Green is an indicator of a copper alloy. A local university might have a handheld x-ray fluorescence (XRF) detector which will give you a non-destructive elemental analysis of the metal.

Although I cannot help with dating the object, such soil conditions could also be used to artificially “age” an item.

thank you very much Steve, your knowledge has been super useful. I wanted to see if I can find some remaining core to be TL tested, so good to know it's not a straight "this is fake" and that if it has been faked, someone has gone to great efforts to make it look like it is real. The style would be from gandhara,, (near Pakistan) east Asia thou..

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