How do I make a certificate of authenticity?
You sold a piece and the buyer asks for the certificate. You look for a model online, find twenty different ones, and none of them explains what it actually needs to say.
In this guide we´ll analyze what goes on it, what it is worth, and what changes when the work is an edition.
What is it actually for?
So that thirty years from now somebody can say whose work it is.
It is not a legal document and it is not a valuation. It does not say what the piece is worth and it guarantees nothing before a court. What it does is put in writing, in your hand, which piece this is, when you made it and who you sold it to.
That sounds like little until you see how many good works end up at auction with nobody able to say who painted them or when. The certificate is what saves them from that.
So what matters is not that it looks elegant but that the data is complete and the paper survives.
What information does it need?
These ones, and not much more:
- Your details. Full name, and city if your name is common.
- The piece. Title, year, medium, dimensions.
- The image. A photo of the work, even a small one. It is what makes the certificate belong to that piece and not a similar one.
- The piece number, if you keep an inventory (which is highly recommended). It is what connects the certificate to your records.
- A short declaration. That the work is original and by your hand.
- Date and signature. By hand, on the paper.
If you sold it, add to whom and when. If you would rather not leave the buyer's name on the document, keep that in your records instead.
Does it need special paper?
No, but it is worth using paper that lasts.
Acid-free cotton paper will be intact in fifty years. A standard laser print on office paper maybe too. What does not last is cheap inkjet ink on recycled paper.
The signature goes on by hand in permanent ink, not gel pen. And if the certificate is going to travel with the work do not laminate it or it can never be signed or annotated again.
There are papers with security features made for this. They are fine, but they solve a forgery problem an emerging artist does not have yet. Complete first, sophisticated later.
What if the work is an edition?
Then the certificate stops being optional and becomes essential.
In printmaking, photography or any multiple, it has to state the number of the impression and the size of the edition (e.g.3/10), and if it is an artist's proof, say so. Add the paper and the mounting if they are part of the work.
And most importantly: the number on the certificate has to match the one signed on the work itself. If you keep good records of which numbers sold, this takes care of itself. If you do not, this is exactly where the same 3/10 gets sold twice.
What should I use?
A Canva or Word template does the job, and there are free models around. The cost is that the data gets copied by hand every time, and that is where the wrong year or an old measurement slips in.
Artium lets you mark the piece as sold, link the client, and the certificate comes out as a PDF with the inventory data, the photo, and the right impression number if it is an edition. The sales receipt comes out too. Free up to 100 pieces, and on the paid plan the document carries your logo, your signature and your colour instead of the Artium mark.
Artium came out of the studio of an artist who was selling work and putting these papers together by hand, one at a time. If this guide was useful, the app does it for you with the inventory data, without retyping anything.
Whatever you choose: make it on the day of the sale, not when it is asked for. The certificate written three months later is the one with the wrong measurement.