Find out who speaks for the artist
An estate, a committee, a foundation — or nobody. Where an authority exists the market will want its opinion and accept little else. Where none exists, catalogue matching and provenance do that work instead.
Lovenhall Art
Authenticate a work of art
Who is allowed to speak for each artist, what the catalogues record, and what a loupe settles before either of them is needed.
10 artists7 modelsFree · no account
Art does not authenticate like a handbag. There is no stitch to read and no serial to look up. There is a named authority — an estate, a committee, a foundation — whose opinion the market accepts, and a catalogue raisonné recording what the artist actually made. Everything else is evidence in support of an argument those two eventually settle.
So the first fact about any artist is who speaks for them, and it is frequently nobody. Warhol's authentication board dissolved in 2012 and Lichtenstein's foundation stopped issuing opinions; Banksy's Pest Control is the only gate his market accepts; Chagall's committee still functions. Those differences change the entire approach, and a generic guide obscures them.
Before any of it, one check settles most cases for free: a loupe. It separates a print from a reproduction in seconds, and a very large share of what arrives here as a possible original turns out to be a poster — which is nobody's fault, and much better to know early.
How the reading goes
Four movements, in this order
The order matters more than the list. Two checks settle most cases, and they are almost never the ones people reach for first.
Match the work to the catalogue raisonné
Edition size, medium, publisher, printer, paper and dimensions are all recorded. A discrepancy in any of them is where a case begins to fail, and edition size is the commonest failure by a wide margin.
Use a loupe before anything else
A regular dot grid means photomechanical reproduction. Flat opaque ink, ink relief or a plate mark means printmaking. The exception is Lichtenstein, whose dots are the artwork — which is exactly why knowing the artist comes first.
Weigh a signature correctly
On most artists a pencil signature applied to the paper's surface is strong evidence. On Dalí it is close to neutral, because the artist signed blank sheets in enormous quantity. The same mark means different things on different names.
The case
Every artist the room reads
One page each, in the artist's own terms — its code system, its weighted checks, its models and what they do on the secondary market.
The free tools of the room
The other rooms
Questions we are asked
- How do I authenticate a work of art?
- Establish who authenticates that artist — an estate, committee or foundation, or nobody at all — then match the work against the catalogue raisonné and assemble provenance. Before either, use a loupe to establish whether you have a print or a reproduction.
- What is a catalogue raisonné?
- A scholarly record of everything an artist made in a medium, stating for each work its edition, dimensions, printer, publisher and markings. Matching a work against its entry is the core of most authentication arguments.
- Is a certificate of authenticity worth anything?
- Only as much as the issuer's standing. A certificate from an artist's recognised authenticating body is decisive; a certificate from a commercial service with no standing is worth nothing, and those are the ones most often produced.
- How can I tell a print from a reproduction?
- A loupe at ten-power magnification. Printmaking shows flat opaque ink, ink relief or a plate mark and no dot structure; photomechanical reproduction shows a regular dot grid or rosette. Lichtenstein is the exception, because his dots are the image.
- Does The Lovenhall Registry authenticate art?
- No. The house makes instruments and publishes the checks; it issues no opinions and no certificates. For a formal finding, approach the artist's authenticating body where one exists, or a recognised specialist where one does not.
Lovenhall ArtRead the work itself
The checks tell you how it was made. The instrument tells you what it appears to be, and roughly what its kind fetches.
Open the Art IdentifierFree on iPhone & iPad. An estimate, never an appraisal.
Or write to the house