An artwork's certificate of authenticity: what it is really for and what it must contain

The certificate attests three things: that the work is by the named artist, that it is the one described, title, dimensions, technique, date, and that it is unique or part of a stated edition. It engages the responsibility of the signatory, artist, gallery or publisher, and is the starting point of any later appraisal.

It does not guarantee the work's future value, nor its condition in twenty years. It is not a promise of gain, it is proof of origin. A work without a certificate is not fake for that reason, but it will have to prove it otherwise, at its own cost, the day someone asks.

A vague certificate, original canvas, signed, is worth nothing: it could describe any canvas. A useful certificate identifies the work beyond any possible ambiguity, so that no other canvas can claim it.

At resale, a serious buyer asks for the certificate before discussing price. Without it, the canvas is negotiated as a decorative object, often at a third of its value; with it, it is negotiated as a work, and the history begins: first owner, date, provenance. Professionals call this provenance, and it is built from the first certificate.

For home insurance, a work declared with its certificate is covered at purchase value, or revalued; without it, the insurer applies the general contents allowance. For an inheritance, the certificate avoids arguments: the canvas is identified, dated, attributed. A few lines protecting an object for decades.

Each canvas of the IS × SEY Maison collaboration carries a unique certificate number, of the form SEY-ART-0001, assigned at creation and never reassigned, even once the canvas is no longer for sale. The number appears on the work's page, on the certificate delivered with it, and in our internal register. A sold canvas stays displayed in the gallery with its banner: public proof it existed once.

The certificate states the title, dimensions, technique, year, position in the first edition, 1/6 to 6/6, and the artist's signature. Saxophone, 1/6, 41 × 27 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2026, carries certificate SEY-ART-0006. The day you resell it, in ten or thirty years, that number will say exactly what it is.