Art Authentication

Forbes has a post on art authentication by Katheryn Tully.  It is written for the beginning art collector but has some good points that we as appraisers mostly know.  It is nice to see the financial press advocate for proper authentication when buying.

Forbes reports

One obvious step is to buy from reputable auction houses, galleries or dealers. Vetted art fairs, where art works on sale have to go through strict vetting procedures to authenticate them, are another good bet.

Another crucial step is to check the provenance of the art. That is to say, what documentation is available to prove its authenticity, and is the documentation itself legitimate? Considerations include whether there is a verifiable chain of ownership for that work of art until today, whether that art work has ever been published in any exhibition catalogs or other publications, and whether it been appraised or received a statement of authenticity by a recognized authority on that artist.

Of course, you can always check that the art is authentic with the artist themselves, if that is possible. One collector told me recently that one of the great advantages she found when collecting contemporary art is that, if all else fails, the artist is still around to vouch for his or her work.

If the art work has it been authenticated by an artist’s foundation or exists in the catalogue raisonné, the definitive bible of that artist’s work, that is also a big help. The Keith Haring Foundation is one of several foundations that have stopped authenticating works on request recently, which has made things still more complicated for buyers, but the foundation is still considering the development of a catalogue raisonné of Haring’s works.

Even without a catalogue raisonné, the work of artists’ foundations can give collectors more confidence to buy. A September report by ArtTactic on Alexander Calder suggests that one reason why the average auction price for his sculptures has increased from under $1 million in 2009 to over $2 million today is the tireless work of The Calder Foundation to catalog his works and to monitor and remove fakes from the market.

Source: Forbes