diffrence art appraisal & art authentication

    An art appraisal is only as good as the credentials of the appraiser inspecting and issuing the appraisal. Appraiser credibility is very important when appraising art and an ASA appraiser sign is really not a proof of credibility.( See conditions to become an ASA appraiser, astonish!).
There are all kind of people who can give you an appraisal so as there are all type of insurance companies that insure items. We saw appraisals, from a single piece of paper showing an appraised value, to "free verbal appraisals".

What is an art appraisal:

    The art appraisal is a valuation in which a diverse number of factors are considered by the appraiser and analyzed in written form. These factors include the purpose of the appraisal, the market in which the object is being valued, the market in which the object was purchased, the market in which the client may want to sell the object, the type of valuation applied and the valuation approach employed by the appraiser. An art appraiser must be knowledgeable in valuation theory. This will allow one to consider and select, for the appraisal, one of the commonly used valuation approaches, such as the cost approach, the income approach or the comparative market data approach in which similar and like items previously sold are compared and contrasted to allow the art appraiser to make an informed choice about an item currently under consideration.
Appraising is a complicated field practiced by trained professionals. Consequently, one should be circumspect when considering the "verbal art appraisal," which may be little more than an informal estimate of what one could expect an object to fetch at an auction or what a dealer would probably pay to purchase it.( Copyright Appraisers Association of America, Inc. 1996)

               "An Art Appraisal doesn’t warrant the authenticity of an item”

What is an art authentication:

An art authentication is the investigation in depth of a painting.
It includes a lot research work see description in webpage about art authentication.
An art authentication can be given only by one or a group of experts for each artist.
Without this authentication certificate it is impossible
- To obtain reimbursement from an insurance for your loss in case of a damage.
- To obtain a serious price for your artwork if you want to sell it.
- To bring it in a major auction house
- Etc.
We saw recently a customer of an insurance company that claimed several million $ for water damage to his paintings, (he had the sales bills for several million $ ). We find out that all his paintings were copies made at the end of the 19 th. century of paintings from the 16 th and 17 century. The insurance will reimburse just a 2 % of the claim, nonetheless he paid big insurance premiums for the art for almost 10 years.

When you sell a car, it needs all the registration papers with the sale. Same with a painting it needs its own authentication. Nobody will pay an amount above $ 50,000.00, for a painting without being sure this painting is authenticated, let stay $ 100,000 or a million $. Makes sense, isn’t it?

An auction house will take your painting if you have a serious proven provenance for your Picasso or Rubens painting, in other words a complete documented research. Unless this it will take months before they will accept your painting for an auction. Also when you show a painting by Corot or Dali they will even refuse to consider your painting if there is no provenance.

Each artist has is own authenticator. Universal recognized by auction houses, galleries, collectors.

“We consider that an appraisal for a painting by Picasso makes no sense if you don’t have the authentication certificate”

Explanation : what it helps to have an appraised value of 25 million $ for your beautiful Picasso if you don’t know if your painting is authentic ?

There are artists that don’t need an authentication, usually their value is below
$ 10,000.00. Once we start in the $ 50,000.00 range, a certificate is necessary, and the right certificate, not a gallery certificate, not an appraiser’s certificate, not an auction certificate, etc. the certificate by the right authenticator, universal recognized.