A market with the same original-versus-reproduction split, and an estate that still speaks.
Barcelona3 weighted checks
Miró's print market has the same structure as Chagall's: original lithographs and etchings that the artist made, alongside a large body of photomechanical reproductions published in books and portfolios. The two look similar framed and are worth very different amounts.
The Successió Miró manages the estate and its rights, and expert opinion on unique works runs through recognised specialists. The Dupin catalogue documents the graphic work.
As with Chagall, the loupe is the fastest and most decisive tool available to a non-specialist.
The Dupin catalogue records Miró's graphic work, stating for each plate the medium, the edition and the publication. Matching a sheet against it establishes whether it is an original print or a reproduction plate from a book.
The Successió Miró manages the estate. For unique works, a recognised specialist opinion supported by provenance is the route the market recognises.
A great many Miró images circulate as legitimate reproductions from gallery publications. They are not fakes and they are not original prints.
Ordered by how much each one settles. The decisive checks are the ones worth your first five minutes; the supporting ones only matter once those are clean.
An original lithograph or etching shows the artist's mark made on the stone or plate — tonal variation, ink relief, a plate mark on an etching — with no dot structure. A reproduction shows a dot grid. This separates the two markets decisively.
Medium, edition, publisher and dimensions should agree with the catalogue entry for that image. Plates from illustrated books are catalogued as such.
Pencil signatures sit on the paper's surface; printed signatures are part of the image. Many book plates are correctly unsigned, and their being unsigned is not a fault.
Each of these is checked differently, within the same weighted list above.
Plates the artist worked directly, catalogued individually.
Read within the checks aboveSheets from gallery publications, frequently framed and sold individually.
Read within the checks above
Lovenhall ArtThe checks tell you how it was made. The instrument tells you what it appears to be, and roughly what its kind fetches.