Understand provenance, certificates, and how to check them.
Longer reads for anyone who wants to go deeper — what provenance is, what a certificate really proves, and how to verify a work or catch a fake yourself.
What is art provenance, and why it matters
Provenance is the documented history of an artwork — where it came from and everywhere it has been since. It is also the single strongest signal that a work is genuine. This guide explains what provenance is, why it matters so much, and what separates a provenance you can trust from one you can't.
Certificates of authenticity, explained
A certificate of authenticity is meant to answer one question: is this work really what it claims to be? Too often it doesn't — because a letter on headed paper is easy to lose and easy to fake. This guide explains what a certificate of authenticity is, what a good one contains, and what makes one genuinely trustworthy.
How to verify art provenance
Verifying provenance used to mean trusting whoever held the paperwork. With a verifiable certificate you can check it yourself, in your own browser, in under a minute. Here is how to do it — and, just as importantly, what the checks can and can't tell you.
How to spot a fake certificate of authenticity
A fake certificate of authenticity is one of the most common tools in art fraud, precisely because a paper letter is so easy to imitate. A verifiable certificate flips that: forgery leaves evidence. Here are the checks that catch a fake, and what to do if one doesn't add up.
A due-diligence checklist for buying art
The excitement of buying a work is exactly when it pays to slow down. Most problems buyers hit later were visible up front — in a certificate that couldn't be checked, or a history with a convenient gap. This checklist walks through the due diligence that protects you before you pay.
How to document your artwork from day one
The best time to record an artwork's history is the moment you make it — before it changes hands, before memories fade, and while you're the one in control of the record. This guide is a practical routine for documenting your work so its provenance is solid from the start.
Provenance vs authentication vs appraisal
Provenance, authentication, and appraisal are three different questions about an artwork — history, authorship, and value — and confusing them causes real mistakes. This guide separates them clearly and shows how they fit together.
Certificate of authenticity vs NFT
As NFTs entered the art conversation, two very different ideas got tangled together: owning a token and proving an artwork is genuine. This guide untangles them — what an NFT is, what a certificate of authenticity is, and which one actually helps with a real, physical work.
How tamper-evident art records work — without the crypto
A record is only worth something if people can trust it hasn't been changed. This guide explains, in plain language, how an art registry makes its records tamper-evident using ordinary cryptography — and it's honest about the one place a public blockchain quietly does a job behind the scenes.
Authenticating photography and editions
With a unique painting, one work means one object. Editions break that assumption: the same image may exist as many signed, numbered copies. This guide explains how editions work and how authenticity is established for a specific copy — honestly, including where image fingerprints stop helping.
Provenance for sculpture and three-dimensional work
A painting is flat, so one good photograph captures it. A sculpture isn't — every angle shows something different, and a cast may be one of several. This guide covers how provenance works for three-dimensional art, where identity leans on the record and attestation more than on any image.