We all love owning unique, one-of-a-kind art pieces that we know are authentic and were made by a talented artist or designer. However, unless you commission an art piece as a custom order, it can be challenging to accept that what you are purchasing is authentic or genuine. Especially in today's world where estimates of over 50% of the art sold on the market are either fake, forged or misattributed. With the help of online shopping, buying, and selling items have become quite easy, however being able to tell if an item is authentic is becoming more and more difficult. Certificates of authenticity are supposed to help combat this problem by acting as an official document that stays with the artwork and provides details about the art piece as a type of receipt. Therefore, it is important to have a certificate of authenticity that can be successfully used to prove that the goods you are selling are authentic. This article will give you all the information you need to know about certificates of authenticity and why artists should use them.
Certificates of authenticity are official documents that provide specific information about the artwork. The information is often used to determine if the artwork is authentic or not. Some of the details that can be included in a COA are:
The certificate of authenticity is kind of like a receipt or an identity card for an artwork which provides the buyer some information and assurance that the artwork was created and signed by the official artist.
A lot of high value items such as watches, diamonds, autographed memorabilia and of course, art, will have a certificate of authenticity attached to it. This is because serious collectors will often ask for and require any work they purchase, to include a certificate of authenticity to provide provenance. After all, serious collectors either sell or pass on their collection so in either case the value and authenticity will need to be safe kept. Galleries and auctions will also require certificates of authenticity so if you’re an artist looking to make sales (hopefully!) then it is a good idea to start creating your COAs asap! Aside from the value it will provide your customers, a genuine COA created by you with your own signature will protect your work from forgeries and bad actors. Its all a matter of making it more difficult and more challenging to a bad actor to copy, forge or fake your artwork. If you can deter someone from copying your work because you have a custom COA with your custom signature, then that is a win you should be willing to accept every single time. These are all great reasons to create your certificate of authenticity as soon as possible but the best part of it all is you can do so for free! There are lots of templates to choose from or better yet, as an artist you can probably create a way better design for your brand.
Provenance is vital to art sales and certificates of authenticity help provide that for investors. It is important to think about including COAs with your art pieces as an artist if you want to provide this extra piece of value to your customers. Most likely they will appreciate you including it by default since they won’t have to go through the trouble of asking for it later.
