What's it Worth? Certificates of Authenticity

Do I need a certificate of authenticity to sell my art?

Where can I get a certificate of authenticity?

My art must be valuable because it came with a certificate of authenticity . . . right?

Everybody loves a certificate. From school science fair awards to college diplomas, those fancy pieces of paper feel meaningful, and often come at quite a cost. But when it comes to certificates of authenticity for artworks, they’re only as important as the person signing them.

As an appraiser, I am careful to note in my reports that I am not an authenticator. Of course, when I’m researching an artwork, I always look for any clues that might indicate the piece is a reproduction or forgery. But if I were to issue a certificate of authenticity, it wouldn’t be worth much, and few of them are.

Here’s a caveat: certain artworks, especially installation or conceptual pieces, do routinely come with important certificates of authenticity from the artist. In part because these pieces are perhaps more easily imitated, the certificates are essential – they’re the proof that you don’t just have a banana duct-taped to your wall, you have a Maurizio Cattelan!

Additionally, if a certificate of authenticity is signed by the artist, their studio, their estate, etc., it can add legitimacy and value to an artwork. These certificates carry weight because the people signing them are significant. They often don’t have any direct financial stake in the situation, either. They are acknowledging that an artwork belongs in the artist’s canon; they aren’t trying to sell anyone on the idea.

A very small percentage of the certificates that come across my desk fall into this category. Most of the ones I see are issued by the galleries who sold the work, and they often contain helpful details like the title of the piece, the year it was created, etc. However, this type of certificate generally doesn’t add value to an artwork and isn’t necessary when reselling it.

Why is this? At its most basic, it’s simply a lack of standing that renders these certificates somewhat worthless – who is the issuer to say this art is real? The art may well be authentic, but the certificate doesn’t make it so.

In some cases though, there can be a sneakier side to these certificates. Looking at some of this documentation, I wonder, why is the seller having to work so hard to convince me that this artwork is legitimate? If there’s no question about the authenticity of this signature, why do they need to cite four different experts who claim it’s correct? I wouldn’t necessarily have assumed this piece would raise so many questions if the seller hadn’t brought it up.

My point is that authenticity often speaks for itself. It is usually best demonstrated through the details of an artwork – as writers say, it’s better to show than tell. For instance, the history (provenance) of an artwork is significant, especially if it can be traced back to the original purchaser. Catalogues raisonnés have been written about many famous artists; these books document every piece the artist is known to have produced. Past auction sales records for the artist also contain many helpful details. When researching an artwork, especially a print, we can support its authenticity by confirming that all aspects of the piece match these descriptions. This type of research generates documentable proof of authenticity and instills confidence with every detail that checks out.

In the end, I think it’s better to have an artwork that doesn’t raise any questions than one with a certificate that claims to have all the answers.

Cleansing the Palate

I worked at an estate auction house in my early 20s, and a big part of my job in the art department was sorting the wheat from the chaff – finding the gems hidden among piles of faded museum posters, paintings on black velvet, and clown art. So much clown art. The amount of clown art literally gave me nightmares. Clowns have always seemed creepy to me, but mainly I just find it truly disturbing that so many people evidently choose to live with pictures of them. Who are these people?

 This is where I would normally post an example of clown art, but I respectfully decline to feature clowns on my own website.

 I digress. Once a week, people could bring in a few pieces of art to the auction house’s “appraisal clinic” and have them evaluated for free. The results of the clinics really ran the gamut – every so often, we’d come across something exciting and valuable, but most often we were seeing pretty run-of-the mill, decorative stuff. At one clinic I found myself (unsuccessfully) trying to persuade a family that their sunflower painting could not have been painted by Vincent Van Gogh while he was in Iowa during his tour of the American Midwest because Van Gogh never traveled to the United States.

Also not by Vincent Van Gogh. (Wayfair)

One day, after a long and particularly fruitless appraisal clinic, a friend at the auction house who ran the Asian art department gave me a great piece of advice: every so often, you have to cleanse your visual palate. If you spend too much time with purely decorative, low-quality or even fake art, you might start to forget what the good stuff really looks like. It’s time to get thee to an art museum.

 It had been too long since I’d taken the time to visit a museum, so this past weekend my husband and I went to the Getty Villa in Malibu. I’ve only come across ancient Greek artifacts once or twice during my years as an appraiser, but my main goals were to enjoy myself and to cleanse my palate by looking at some truly special artworks.

The Getty Villa in Malibu, California (via Time Out)

 I was struck by how much personality was on display in the various sculptures, vessels and pieces of jewelry. This skyphos (drinking vessel) from about 450 B.C. shows a woman leaving her storeroom while drinking wine. As the placard said, “In the male-centered society of fifth-century B.C. Athens . . . a woman getting drunk at home alone defied standards of proper behavior.” Maybe she’d had a really long day? Ancient Greeks – they’re just like us!

Photo from the Getty Villa

This wine mixing vessel was used at drinking parties and has four warships painted on the interior of the rim. When the vessel was full of wine, the ships looked as though they were at sea - the imagery also alluded to the fact that if partygoers drank too much they might get “wrecked.”

 I loved this sculpture of a comedic actor from about 400 B.C. He’s made of terracotta, but his grinning face looks as elastic as Robin Williams’s.

 This figure of a woman was carved in Anatolia (present-day Turkey) in approximately 4500 B.C., which is kind of mind-boggling – if they’d said it was a contemporary sculpture, I could have believed it.

 Enjoy this slideshow of some of my other favorites and cleanse your own palate – it’s good for the mind as well as the spirit.

Picture Postcards

Why am I an art consultant?

Appreciating Seurat’s A Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte at the Art Institute of Chicago.

When I was a kid and had no idea that “art consultant” was even a job, art was still a major part of my life because I surrounded myself with it. My bedroom walls were covered with posters of my favorite Monet paintings, and under a sheet of glass on my desktop were postcards from every art museum I’d ever visited. I would rearrange them regularly, keeping the extras in a shoebox in my closet – and I had a lot of extras. I grew up just outside Washington, D.C., and my parents often took me to the National Gallery, where I’d acquired the bulk of my collection. Postcards gave me a way to hang on to the feeling of losing myself in a captivating painting.

A childhood trip to the Metropolitan Museum - I promise I enjoyed it more than my face here suggests.

As a teenager applying to college, it suddenly dawned on me that my continued interest in art was something worth pursuing more seriously. I have no talent for drawing or painting – I’m strictly an art appreciator – and it never occurred to me that I might have a future in the art world. I just knew that I loved art, so I decided to give art history a try. Packing up for my move to Berkeley, I made sure to bring my shoeboxes full of postcards, which soon papered the walls of my dorm room.  

An example of postcard wallpaper in a dorm - sadly, my college photos are trapped on an old digital camera somewhere. Photo: Society 19

Instinctively, art is the first thing I add when moving to a new space, no matter how temporary. I once carted along two large Robert Motherwell silkscreen prints when my family had to relocate for few months, whereas most of my clothes went into storage. But the art made the new space feel like home. It was essential.

An adorable photobomber in front of the Robert Motherwells in our temporary home.

I feel so fortunate that my family has been able to collect a number of original artworks, but my postcards still have a special place in my heart because they remind me of why I chose this career: I have always felt compelled to surround myself with art, and I want to share that feeling with as many people as possible.

A Joseph Albers Homage to the Square silkscreen installed in a bedroom

Art makes your space distinctive, adding energy to any room. And while I can’t cite any scientific sources on this, I firmly believe from my own experience that art is good for your brain – it engages your mind and imagination yet also offers a mental resting place during times of quiet reflection.  Not to mention the fact that it makes any room more interesting and beautiful.

An Aldo Chaparro crumpled metal wall sculpture, installed in a Laguna Beach home.

At California Art Advisory, placing art in clients’ homes is my favorite part of the job. The hunt for the right piece is one I relish, but the best part is visiting again after my clients have had a chance to live with it for a while. Seeing how the art has enhanced their home and become part of their daily routines is so satisfying, especially if they have children. When kids live with art (whether it’s original or of the postcard variety), their lives are enriched, and if they’re lucky, they’ll find a way to keep that feeling going, even as adults.

A Damien Hirst butterfly hanging in a very chic nursery

What Art Appealed to Buyers in 2020?

I got an email newsletter today with the headline “Most Expensive Art Sold in 2020.”  I’ll admit, at first I felt like someone needed to read the room – given everything going on in the world at the moment and the number of people who’ve lost their jobs due to the pandemic, it just isn’t the right time to be glorifying Blue Chip art purchases.

But one aspect of this article piqued my curiosity: what kinds of artworks were most compelling to collectors this year?   Given the large selection of artworks offered at auction in 2020, which images drew the most attention?

If you’d like to learn more about the actual sales and additional details about the individual artworks, feel free to read the Artsy article here. In the meantime, enjoy this collection (in no particular order) of some of the artworks that spoke to collectors at auction last year.

A Collection of Collections

When I was ten years old, my parents and I visited Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, “The Mushroom Capital of the World,” and happened to stop in to the now-defunct Mushroom Museum.   We wandered around the darkened exhibits (mushrooms don’t like light, after all) and watched a very confusing video that showed a woman in 1970s dress blithely preparing mushrooms while a voice-over explained that she was doing it all wrong.  (I think I also remember seeing mushrooms carved and decorated to resemble little animals, but I can’t independently verify this)  In any case, the visit sparked my lifelong love of quirky museums and unique collections.

Since then, some of the most unusual museums I’ve visited include the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, where I marveled at the tiny slippers used in Chinese foot-binding and the sky-high sparkly platform oxfords that Elton John wore onstage.

When I studied abroad in France during college, I stopped into the Honoré de Balzac Museum (Maison de Balzac) in the Parisian home of the late author.  The staff there seemed genuinely surprised to see a visitor turn up, and I was able to wander alone among paintings of Balzac’s relatives, printing plates used to illustrate his novels, and artifacts including the monogrammed coffee pot from which Balzac drank an alleged 50 cups of coffee per day.

Since the museum is currently closed due to COVID0-19, online visitors can now enjoy a virtual tour.

I’ve never been to Japan, but after reading Johnny Waldman’s article on This is Colossal describing a very special and distinctive museum there, I’ve added it to my must-visit list. It’s a 1,700 piece collection of jinmenseki – rocks with human faces. (All of the following photos come from Waldman’s article)

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Chinsekikan (Hall of Mysterious Rocks) is located in Chichibu, Japan, northwest of Tokyo.  The late Shozo Hamaya spent 50 years collecting rocks that look as though they have human faces, his only criteria being that they be unaltered from their natural state. Today, Mr. Hamaya’s wife Yoshiko serves as the head curator.

rockface-9.jpg

Apart from its unique subject, the collection also offers some surprises. For instance, who knew Mother Nature was an Elvis fan?

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This one, reminiscent of Easter Island Moai, is one of my favorites, as well.

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I can’t wait for the chance to visit.

Granted, not all of these places are strictly “art museums,” but they illustrate the significance that a special collection can have, both for the collector and the viewer. The same can apply to the art and collectibles we bring into our homes – not only do they say something about us, but, considered together, they have the potential to tell a story of their own.

The Life List Collection

Not surprisingly for someone in my line of work, I like looking at art - a lot.  I feel so lucky to be able to spend so much time touring galleries, studios and art fairs to research artworks to add to my clients' collections.  Along the way, I've come across certain artists and specific pieces that have stuck with me, and I've mentally added them to a special collection: works that I would snap up in a heartbeat, should the opportunity present itself and my family were also on board.

Bird watchers often keep a “Life List,” a record of every bird species they’ve observed in the wild.  I like to think of my imaginary collection as my own life list, comprised of artworks that I would love to live with and appreciate on an everyday basis. 

My list is ever-evolving and almost completely impractical, but that's what makes it a fun exercise.  Keeping an eye out for specific, special pieces for my clients and myself helps me focus when faced with the sometimes overwhelming scale of an art fair, for instance, and tracking those artists’ markets enables me to recognize a great deal when I see one.

Following this method, I've been able to acquire one or two pieces by artists on my list for my family’s art collection.  Truth be told, I did sell them eventually (an art life list doesn't fund itself!) but to have been able to enjoy them every day in our family home, even for a year or so, was such a special experience.  

I’d like to occasionally share about some of my dream acquisitions here in the hope that it may inspire other people to start thinking this way about collecting art.  It also doesn’t hurt to put these wishes out into the universe, just in case!

Alex Katz

The first time I remember seeing Alex Katz’s work was at the 2008 Los Angeles Art Fair, which was then held at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica.  It was a lithograph called “Blue Umbrella,” one of Katz’s many portraits of his wife, Ada.  This print has such an incredible cinematic quality, with raindrops falling in front of Ada’s face as she looks off into the distance. 

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In 2008 I was one year out of college and in no position to be buying art at that level, but I fell in love with that piece.  It’s stayed with me and is my most vivid memory of that day, in spite of the mortifying fact that I literally backed into and stepped on legendary actor and noted art aficionado Steve Martin that day.  (I’m sorry, Steve!) 

A few times other prints in this edition have come up for sale at auction, and I’ve signed up to bid a few times, but sometimes the bidding got out of hand, or the image was faded, or the paper had mildew spots (foxing) or handling creases.  It’s never been the right piece at the right time, but I’ve got my eye out!

One side benefit to having Alex Katz (and Ada) on my radar is that when I happened to see them in the flesh perusing the booths at Art Basel Miami one year, I recognized Ada immediately from her portraits! I didn’t say anything to them (I generally view celebrity sightings like bird watching – best from a distance, where I won’t disturb them) but it was a complete thrill, nonetheless.  I was literally seeing a painting come to life. 

Amazing!

Even at the end of a challenging week - for myself, for the world, for the stock market - Mel Bochner’s monoprints still put a smile on my face. When frustrated, I often find that I connect more to those that feature more “colorful” language, but today, this piece is lifting my sprits.

Phillips, an auction house with a strong international presence as well as a flagship location in New York City, recently produced an excellent article about Mel Bochner’s process (both creative and technical) when creating his monoprints. I also enjoyed reading an older interview with Bochner in The Brooklyn Rail in which he mentions that his father was a sign painter - interesting, considering the focus on text in Bochner’s own practice.

In the same interview, Bochner offers insight into his artistic approach, which could also be read as advice for anyone looking to begin or enhance their own creative practice:

My way of doing things is to follow my interests wherever they lead me. I don’t have a pre-formed theory about what my work is or should be. I work by making up hypotheses, “What would happen if…” and then working through the contradictions as they come up. It’s an inductive process and it has led me up some blind alleys, but that’s what makes being an artist interesting. That’s where the adventure is, in the not-knowing.

Finally, if a Mel Bochner original is out of your budget but you’d like to incorporate some of his inspiration into your daily life and surroundings, his work also makes a lovely mug.

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Wishing everyone an Amazing weekend.

My Wish List: Los Angeles Modern Auctions

As an art consultant, some of my favorite resources are auctions. They are wonderful sources of vintage artworks and typically you end up paying less than at a retail gallery. (Full disclosure: the trade-off is often that the pieces are not in pristine condition or need reframing, at the very least)

I think the best part of an auction, though, is the serendipity of it all. I love to browse an auction catalog, keeping an eye out for my favorite artists or particularly attractive estimates, but mostly just enjoying the surprise of not knowing what kind of artworks will be offered for sale. Stuffed-animal-covered loveseat, anyone?

Los Angeles Modern Auctions is a local company that hosts around four sales a year, focusing on design pieces and artworks with a modern aesthetic. Their selections date from around 1950 through today, and although their estimates are often a bit higher than your average estate auction house, the offerings are expertly curated and generally in very good condition.

As a personal fan of mid-century design and artwork, I usually find myself dog-earing page after page of their sale catalogs. I don’t usually think too much about whether something would be a good buy at this point - my first criteria is always, “do I like it?”

With their end-of-September sale looming, I thought I’d share a few of my wish-list picks from the most recent LAMA catalog with you. Please note that I completely reserve the right to keep the best things secret for myself so you don’t bid against me! Click on the image to see the lot on the LAMA website.

I do bid at auction on behalf of my clients (both private and corporate) as well as myself, but it’s easy to do it yourself, if you’re so inclined. Feel free to reach out with any questions!