Certificate of Authenticity

The Certificate of Authenticity is needed to determine that a work of art is authentic and has been created by the artist who sells it. The Certificate of Authenticity must include several compulsory indications in order to be valid.

You must provide a Certificate of Authenticity to the buyer (even if the buyer does not request it) along with the invoice for the sale of your work.

Here are the main points that must be included in a Certificate of Authenticity when purchasing a work of art:

1) It should be issued by the most competent person
The author of the artwork, a rightful owner or a professional recognized in the art industry.

2) It should be forgery-proof
Making a document or a Certificate of Authenticity forgery-proof requires at the very least that it is impossible to photocopy and that its reproduction using a digital camera gives very bad results. This document or Certificate of Authenticity can also be protected against forgery by the presence of a watermark, which includes a security hologram.

3) It should only be available in a single copy
It is important to ensure that the Certificate of Authenticity exists in a single copy only. No duplicates of the Certificate of Authenticity should be issued. In the event of loss of the Certificate of Authenticity by the buyer, the authorized creator may provide a document stating who is the original buyer of the artwork and that there is no other Certificate of Authenticity of the same reference.

4) It should guarantee the artwork's authentication
A clear indication of the author of the Certificate of Authenticity, the date of issue, a precise description of the artwork (format, technique, medium, location of the signature), a unique identification number, number in the series, a photo of the artwork. Of course the Certificate of Authenticity must be signed by hand. The invoice is used as identification but it is a simple identification and the seller of the artwork doesn't necessarily want to provide the invoice.

5) The Certificate of Authenticity must be listed
The Certificate of Authenticity must be listed with a picture of the artworkin order to verify the validity of the Certificate of Authenticity on the artwork and to contact the authors if necessary.