Certificates and provenance

A work does not explain itself. The paperwork that accompanies it does.

Buying international graphic art means buying two things: an image and a documentation set. You can see the image. The documentation is what decides what the piece in your hands is actually worth — and it is precisely what most sellers do not show.

This page explains how we read a work, what each document means, and what you are entitled to ask before you buy.

A certificate of authenticity is not what most people think

A certificate of authenticity is a document issued by a recognized authority on an artist's work — usually the committee of their heirs, their foundation, or the expert they designate — stating that this specific piece is authentic.

Three things worth understanding up front:

1. Not every piece of paper is a certificate. A gallery invoice, a certificate printed by the seller, or a document without a recognized authority's signature are not certificates of authenticity. They are commercial documents. They are useful, but they are not equivalent.

2. Most graphic works have no certificate, and that is normal. A large share of twentieth-century lithographs, etchings and screenprints were produced for books, art magazines and edition portfolios. They never went through a committee because their origin was never in question.

3. For many major artists, no one certifies any more. This is the key point and almost nobody says it. We detail it artist by artist below.

The four types of support, strongest to weakest

1. Certificate from a recognized authority

Issued by the artists' heirs' committee, their foundation, or the expert they designate. The strongest support that exists.

It usually requires the work to be presented physically — photographs are not enough — and it has a cost. The real details of the committees still operating today are below.

2. A reference in the catalogue raisonné

The catalogue raisonné is the complete, numbered inventory of an artist's graphic work, compiled by a specialist. Every piece has a reference number.

When a listing cites a catalogue reference, you can verify it yourself in the publication. It is the most useful and most underrated form of support: it does not depend on anyone's word.

For example, a Warhol Marilyn screenprint referenced as F&S II.29 is citing the Feldman & Schellmann catalogue. That is verifiable.

3. Publisher and printer documentation

Who published the edition and who printed it.

This matters more than it seems: the combination of publisher + printer + publication identifies an edition precisely. When a listing says "lithograph from 1956 for Derrière le Miroir 93–94, published by Maeght and printed by Mourlot", it is giving three cross-checkable facts that place the piece exactly within its edition.

4. Commercial provenance

Previous invoices, auction records, documented history of the hands a work has passed through. It adds context and support, particularly at higher values.

Who authenticates each artist today — the fact almost nobody publishes

This is the part that changes the conversation. Many of the committees people assume exist, no longer do.

Chagall

Comité Marc Chagall (Paris). Created in 1988 by Valentine Chagall, his widow, together with their children Ida and David McNeil. It is the only recognized authority for authenticating his work.

• Requires physical presentation of the work. It never rules on photographs.
• Certificate cost: €1,700 excluding tax (2023 rate).
• For graphic works — engravings, lithographs, screenprints — the Committee delegates to Marc Lebouc, expert at the Galerie de l'Institut, Paris.

Miró

Two bodies depending on the type of work:

• ADOM (Association pour la Défense de l'Œuvre de Joan Miró), Paris, created in 1985. A seven-member committee chaired by Ariane Lelong-Mainaud. It certifies paintings, works on paper, sculpture and ceramics. File opening: €200 plus tax.
• Graphic works (engravings, lithographs, screenprints): Rosa Maria Malet, at the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona. Admission fee: €100 per work.

Dalí

Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí. Its Authentication and Cataloguing Commission handles unique works only: oils, watercolours and drawings.

The Foundation states that it does not offer an expert service for graphic works, three-dimensional works, manuscripts or signatures.

In other words: for a Dalí lithograph or engraving, there is no Foundation certificate today. Any "Dalí certificate" for graphic work in the market does not come from the Foundation.

Warhol

The Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board no longer exists. It was dissolved — announced October 2011, operations ceased in 2012 — after years of litigation. The Simon-Whelan case alone cost the Foundation more than $6 million in legal defence. The board had evaluated some 6,000 works over 17 years.

The Foundation itself confirms it: the authentication board no longer exists and does not authenticate work.

And it took others with it: the foundations of Pollock-Krasner (1996), Keith Haring (2012), Roy Lichtenstein, Basquiat, Calder, Isamu Noguchi and Dedalus (Motherwell) also ceased authenticating.

Picasso

The committee the heirs established in the 1980s was disbanded in 1993 after disputes among the heirs themselves over the authenticity of a group of drawings. Picasso authentication has been institutionally contentious for decades.

In practice: there is no standard route today for Picasso to certify a graphic work.

Matisse, Léger and other moderns

They have no active graphic-work authentication committee equivalent to Chagall's or Miró's. Support rests on catalogues raisonnés and independent specialist expertise.

Negret

Edgar Negret has a clear mechanism: certificates from Casa Negret / Galería Casa Negret·Buitrago, with works signed and numbered by the artist. It is one of the few cases in the catalogue where direct, verifiable institutional support exists.

Why all of this matters: the signature problem

There is one statistic that explains why this page exists.

Fewer than 5% of Chagall's lithographs, etchings and woodcuts are signed and numbered. Fewer than five per cent.

And yet the market is full of "signed Chagalls".

The reason is simple and it needs saying: adding a signature multiplies the value by ten. It is the most profitable and hardest-to-detect manipulation in graphic art, because reading a signature correctly requires expert knowledge. And it occurs frequently too in work by Matisse, Picasso, Miró, Léger and many others.

Practical consequences for you as a buyer:

• A signature is not proof of authenticity. It is one data point.
• A printed or "plate" signature is part of the image. It is not the artist's hand on your impression.
• A pencil signature with no other documentary support is exactly where fraud lives.
• The absence of a signature does not devalue a legitimate work from a magazine or book edition. It is normal in its category.
• What actually sustains value is the cross-check of technique, dimensions, publisher, printer, catalogue reference and condition.

Our policy

We disclose the documentary status of every piece in its own listing. Without exception.

Every work in the catalogue states what documentation accompanies it. Where a piece does not have a certificate, the listing says so in those words and the price reflects it: these are documented works, not certified ones.

We use two categories and we do not mix them:

We never present a work as something we cannot support. If a piece has no certificate, you will not read in our listing that it does.

What documentation you receive with the work

• Technical sheet for the piece: artist, technique, impression date, edition type, dimensions, signature type and declared provenance.
• Certificate of authenticity, where the piece has one.
• Photographic record of condition at the time of dispatch.
• Purchase document in the name of Cosmic Art Gallery.

How we read a work before offering it

This is the review we carry out on every piece. It is also the checklist you can use yourself, anywhere, with any seller:

What we do not do

We do not issue certificates of authenticity. We are not a recognized authority and we will not act as if we were.

We do not authenticate works. Neither our own nor third parties'.

We do not give opinions on signatures. That is precisely the area where most fraud exists and where specialized expert knowledge is required.

Our documentation review is not an authentication opinion. It is a review of the available information and the key questions before you buy. It is quoted separately: US$ 60 basic review · US$ 90 extended scope.

If you need a professional authentication opinion, we help coordinate it with the relevant committee or expert and we tell you the cost before you decide.

If you want to authenticate a work

Here are the real details, so you can do it yourself, with us or without us.

In all cases the work must be presented physically. No committee certifies from photographs.

And one point worth keeping in mind: given what it costs to authenticate a Miró graphic work — €100 to €200 plus shipping — authentication makes sense once a work passes a certain value. For a print worth a few hundred dollars, it does not always. We tell you so plainly when it applies.

The conclusion

The graphic art market has an information problem, not a works problem. Legitimate pieces are the majority. What is missing is someone to explain what you are looking at.

That is what we do. We do not ask you to trust us: we give you what you need to verify.