Tips and Tricks: How to Spot Authenticity Problems From Home

A note before anything else: you cannot authenticate a work of art from home, and neither can I. Authentication is a formal opinion from someone with the standing to give it, usually the artist's foundation, estate or catalogue raisonné committee, a recognized scholar, or a conservator with the right equipment. What you can do, and should do before buying anything, is the preliminary work: the checks that tell you whether a piece is worth taking seriously, and whether the seller's story holds up. Most forgeries and misattributions fail these simple checks long before an expert is needed.

1. Research the artist

Start with the artist's record: biography, exhibition history, galleries that have represented them, and auction results. Does this kind of work, at this size, in this medium, from this period, actually exist in their output? Many artists and estates publish a catalogue raisonné, the official list of every known work, and some run authentication committees. If a work claims to be by an artist with a catalogue raisonné and is not in it, that is the first question to ask the seller.

2. Look at the signature

Compare the signature against documented examples from the same period of the artist's career; signatures change over a lifetime. Look at placement, medium and pressure as well as the letters. A signature in the wrong place, in a material the artist never used, or that looks drawn rather than written, is a warning. So is a signature that is far more confident than the painting around it. Keep in mind that a good forger starts with the signature, so a convincing one proves nothing on its own.

3. Check the materials against the date

Materials have dates. Acrylic paint was not available to artists until the 1950s. Titanium white did not exist as an artist's pigment before the 1920s. Machine-made canvas, modern staples instead of tacks, plywood stretchers and bright optical-white papers all have known starting points. A work dated before its materials existed is not what it claims to be. For editions, check the paper, the printing method and the edition numbering against what the publisher actually produced.

4. Verify the provenance

Provenance is the chain of ownership from the artist to today. Ask the seller for it in writing, then test it: do the galleries exist, do the auction lots match, does the exhibition history check out, can any of the previous owners be confirmed? A documented history with a museum exhibition in it is reassuring. A history that is vague, that relies on a "private collection, Europe" with no detail, or that cannot be checked at any point, is where most problems hide. Gaps are not proof of anything, but they are a reason to slow down.

5. Then consult an expert

If the piece passes all of that and the money is significant, this is when you bring in the professional, not instead of the steps above but after them. The right expert depends on the artist: the foundation or committee where one exists, a recognized specialist where one does not, and a conservator for anything that needs the materials examined under the right light. Choose someone with a reputation to protect and no stake in the sale. A seller who discourages this, or offers their own expert, has answered the question for you.

What this is for

These checks will not give you a certificate. What they will do is keep you from paying for an expert opinion on something that was never going to pass, and from paying for a work that no expert will ever stand behind. Part of what Basher Fine Art does before any purchase is this groundwork, and knowing which expert to call when it is time. Get in touch if you want a second pair of eyes on something before you commit.