Monday, October 03, 2011

The Essentials On Authenticating And Attributing Art




You can find art for sale almost anywhere, most of it



coupled with a variety of forms of certification,



documentation, authentication, provenance,



attribution, and all other claims that the piece is by



this artist, etc. But guess what? None of these



papers, claims, certificates of authenticity,



documents or even tall tales mean a thing if they're



not stated, authored, or else traceable to or directly



associated with accepted, recognized, and qualified



authorities about the art in question, and also the



artist themselves.





So here are some of the essentials to know on



attributing and authenticating art, how it works and



who the people to be trusted are.





They抮e All Connected-Not!





One of the most pervasive problems in selling art



deals with "attributed" art. It抯 so common that every



kind of unqualified individual would attribute



artworks to different kinds of artists, sad to say



100% of these attributions are considered to be



worthless.





How come? Simply because in the art industry,



legitimate attributions are only made by known and



recognized authority figures that have legitimate



authority on the attributed artists?names.





Defining "Attributed"





Officially and technically speaking, "attributed"



means a specific work of art, which is most likely an



original, is at the hand and is certified by a



qualified authority on the matter. Take note that your



keywords here are "qualified authority". Thus, if the



attribution is done by an unqualified person, then it



would be meaningless.





Who Are The Qualified Authority?





A qualified authority is someone who really knows what



he/she is talking about and has the proof to anything



he/she says. Qualified authorities are those people



that have deliberately studied the artist under



consideration, have already published papers about the



artist, and have curated major gallery shows or



museums catering the works of the artist.





They can also be someone who have taught courses about



the artist; bought or sold at least dozens or even



hundreds of artworks by the artist; have written



magazine articles, books, or catalogue essays about



the artist, and the like.





The artist him/herself can also be a qualified



authority, along with his relatives, employees, direct



descendants, and heirs. Also, people who have formal,



legal, or estate-granted sanctions or entitlements in



able to pass judgment the artist抯 works are



considered to be qualified authorities. Most



importantly, they should be recognized throughout the



whole art community to the people in charge when it



comes to the matter of dealing with works by that



artist.





Who Are Not Qualified?





The list of people whom are not qualified could take



forever to complete. However, here are some of the



general characteristics of those unqualified people



who most likely say that they are qualified.





First off, you should watch out for those who think



that the piece they are selling is by this certain



artist just because the work 憀ooks like?it is done



by that artist; also, those who think that the piece



is by that artist because they saw some illustrations



from art books that are similar to the piece at hand.





Additionally, sellers that answer you with "that is



what the previous owner told me" kind of questions are



not to be trusted. You really can抰 rely on



tattle-tailing to very if the work is an original or



not. This is just the same if they say that the work



is by such artist because the previous owner is rich



and famous.





You should also watch out for art appraisers, since



they only appraise and not authenticate; unless they



have qualifications to do so. Take note that appraisal



and authentication are two different things.





So, if you抮e planning on buying a so-called original,



then you must make sure that the person you抮e talking



to is a qualified authority, or better yet, the artist



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