My Guarantee on Art From My Personal Collection

G U A R A N T E E

Since many who inquire concerning a particular art work from my personal collection ask concerning the authenticity of the item and whether I can unequivocally state whether it is real or not, I am creating this rational page on that subject. I hope it helps.

I. FORWARD

Art authentication, especially on older pieces from artists no longer living, is VERY SUBJECTIVE and most often based on judgment calls. The REALITY of it is that an expert would have had to actually be with any artist 24 hours a day, every time he created a work, whether at his studio, a cafe where he drew something on a napkin for an admirer, on travels when he sketched things for possibly later works, a publisher's establishment where he signed extra plates from a book as a favour, and limitless other occasions which may, and have been, documented. There is NO living or dead expert who has ever fulfilled these simple criteria!

Even SIGNATURES, when present, are NOT always reliable nor easy to authenticate. I have seen an entire book of over a hundred pages of the signatures of Salvador Dalí. What would an expert say about an odd signature that was signed when the artist's model was enticing the guy, or when he / she was half asleep after a long night at the atelier sipping absinthe?

Every year Old Masters in many museums around the world are SCIENTIFICALLY reevaluated and found to be NOT authentic, for whatever reason, usually based on sophisticated tests of the medium, ground, and other tangible elements in the work. This kind of analyses I, as a scientist, can accept and agree with -- but even some in the exalted art community may not like the findings! After all, A R T is not only an esthetic human activity, for the artist as well as the viewer - collector, it unfortunately is also a greedy, market driven commodity asset. Neither Evelio nor I have EVER considered art in this way, and simply enjoy it.

Data in the standard reference works for artists, what they call the Catalogue Rassonne, are frequently being updated -- removing works which were listed previously that later research proved to be from the school of or just plain forgeries, and new works added which sometimes were found in attics, country auction sales or even thrift shops. They usually make top headline news every year or so.

II. MY CRITERIA

Information which I include about artists is obtained from reference books which I have in my research library (including such standards as Mallett, Benezit and Davenport), and usually refers to the signature on the item. I was not physically present when the works were created or signed and cannot, with any certainty, "authenticate" them -- BUT -- ALL of the media, subject, style, dates (when present) and signatures (when signed) are within the scope of a particular artist's works, as found in these books. I do NOT pretend to be an art "expert" -- Evelio was -- and my PERSONAL guarantee is that I, based on the foregoing, consider them AUTHENTIC .

After Evelio died in 1991 I did send photos and information on a few items to several American and European auction houses asking for their thoughts on them. Some of the estimates were higher (and lower!) than I had imagined, while others said that, in their judgment, they could not "authenticate" them because they would have to physically have them present to examine them.

I took 3 truckloads of antiques and art works to several auction houses in New Jersey, Philadelphia and New York and was VERY disappointed with the results. In one case ALL of the items went into their weekly junk sales and got pennies on the dollar! In another, the scheming very personable auctioneer never paid me over 12k on things which sold, and her own bidders got most of them excessively cheap! (I have this info on another of my web pages somewhere) So I am NOT thrilled about auction houses and how they do so-called "business"!

Online auctions can be just as flakey -- potential bidders put the item on their so-called Watch List, the dumbest option I even encountered; how many thing can occur between placing an item on this list and the end of the auction? An auction server glitch which slows down the loading of web pages, which happens too frequently, so the bidder cannot even get a bid in if he or she wanted to / a bidder computer malfunction due to any number of causes, not the least of which are the viruses and worms constantly attacking InterNUT users working on PCs / and lastly, the bidder is occupied with something else, perhaps somewhere else, and completely forgets about what he or she was supposed to be watching -- I receive too many emails after the item SOLD asking if it is still available!

III. MY GUARANTEE

IF, within 7 calendar days of the arrival of the art work, you are not satisfied with your new treasure because it has been SCIENTIFICALLY documented NOT to be authentic, based on laboratory test results (more than one analysis type), you may return said item to me (after providing me with the relevant data -- see below) in its ORIGINAL condition and I shall cheerfully refund your purchase price, less shipping, insurance and other related fees. (This is a LOT better than some eBay auctions which give you 24 - 48 hours)

Such tests include, but are not limited to, chemical analysis of the paint / ink or other medium, specific dating of the paper or other ground based on composition / fibers / maker, DNA analysis of potential artist hairs or other decisive traces found within the work, etc. (Hey, this last one does not seem all that decisive -- what if the model leaned over the canvas and her / his hair dropped onto the work! Anyway, I think you get the picture -- no pun intended!)

Platinum - sheathed (which is always better than Iron - Clad ) test results from the appropriate corresponding registered and accepted laboratories must be received, within the stated period, in hard copy on official letterheads, via postal service mail (NOT faxed or emailed), and include data on what analyses were made based on what criteria, by what analyst, with copies of related data and references.

Once again, I have NEVER had a return on any of the art works or anything else from my collection, so something must be right about them! For one thing, the prices are WAY below what books may value them at, and even these vary from source to source, usually based on auction prices which, in MANY cases, are what a DEALER pays for them -- thus his gallery selling price would be many times that figure!

Last updated: Tue, 14 Jan 2003 14:17:28 GMT

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