Certificates, and what they mean

Most first-time buyers are handed a certificate with the work, and most are reassured by it. It helps to know what one is: a piece of paper on which somebody states their belief that a work is by a particular artist. The paper is real. Whether the belief is right depends on the somebody.

1. Why this matters in India

Fakes of modern Indian masters are common. The Week names S. H. Raza as among the most faked artists in India, along with M. F. Husain, F. N. Souza, Jamini Roy, Nandalal Bose, J. Swaminathan, Manjit Bawa, Jehangir Sabavala, Ganesh Pyne and Anjolie Ela Menon. The Millennium Post reported that Raza, Souza and Husain were faked at random, and quoted the artist Manish Pushkale: there are no legal guidelines on forging modern and contemporary Indian art, because it is not recognised as national heritage.

A certificate does not change any of that. Forgers can print certificates as easily as they paint canvases.

2. Who issued it

Ask this before anything else. In rough order of weight:

1. The artist, in their lifetime. DNA reported that major galleries ask artists to sign a letter bearing a photograph of the work. If the artist is alive, ask them, or their studio, directly.
2. A recognised estate, foundation or trust that holds the artist’s archive and is known to authenticate.
3. A scholar known for that artist, ideally one preparing or keeping a record of the artist’s works.
4. The gallery that first showed it. Useful if the gallery still exists and its records go back that far.
5. A dealer or seller. Their certificate is a promise from the seller, not an independent view. Treat it as part of the invoice.

A certificate signed by “an expert” with no name you can look up is not evidence.

3. What a good one contains

• A clear photograph of the work, ideally signed across or stamped so it cannot be swapped.
• Title, date, medium, exact size, and any inscriptions front and back.
• The issuer’s full name, address and contact details.
• The date of issue, and what the issuer examined: the work itself, or only photographs.

A certificate that could describe any painting by the artist describes none.

4. Check the certificate itself

• Contact the issuer on a number or address you find yourself, not the one printed on the certificate. Ask whether they issued it, and keep their answer in writing.
• Ask the issuer what they would do if new evidence turned up against the work.
• Be wary of a certificate issued after a work was publicly questioned, or one that arrived with the work from an unnamed previous owner.

The Karachi Collective, writing on authentication, points out that buyers of works by artists who have died cannot rely on certificates from galleries or auction houses alone, and describes certified works later found to be copies.

5. What counts more than paper

A work’s history. Where did it come from: the artist, a first gallery, a family who bought it in the year it was made? Was it in an exhibition, or a book, with a photograph that matches? Does the back of the work agree with the story? See Reading the back of a painting.

In 1998, DNA reported, a buyer offered some fifty works as Souzas wrote to the artist. He replied that all of them were fakes. A forged certificate cannot answer back. A well-documented history usually can.

6. Keep your own

Whatever you are given, keep the original with the invoice, photograph both, and store a copy away from the work. One day this folder will be the work’s history, and someone else will be reading it.