Catalog raisonné (artist's complete catalog)
A scholarly inventory of all known works by an artist, which sets market value: a work left out loses most of its worth, and insurers rely on it for agreed value and claims.
In 2012, the Andy Warhol Foundation shut down its authentication board. It had just spent years and millions of dollars in defense costs against owners of rejected works, and it was not the only one to give up. A catalog raisonné is the scholarly inventory of every known work by an artist, with dimensions, medium, date, provenance, exhibitions and bibliography, drawn up by a specialist or a committee, often backed by the estate. In the market it carries more weight than any opinion: a canvas that is not in it, or that is dropped from it, no longer goes through the major sales and loses most of its value, even if nobody proves it is fake. Hence the litigation. An owner whose work is turned down sues the author of the catalog, and committees would rather dissolve than issue opinions that expose them. The underwriter uses it at three points. At inception, the catalog number backs the agreed value and the description of the object on the schedule of values. After a theft, the entry and its photograph identify the work and allow it to be listed in stolen art registers. After damage, it serves as a condition reference. The caveat is revision: a catalog in preparation, or a new edition that drops a work, changes the value of an insured object without it suffering the slightest knock, and the fine art policy excludes that market loss. Not to be confused with a condition report, which records the physical state of a piece at a given moment, nor with a certificate of authenticity issued by a seller.
Textbook case: a canvas is insured at an agreed value of 2 million euros, on the strength of an accepted attribution. The new catalog raisonné drops it. At auction it now finds a buyer only at 100,000 euros, 5% of its former value. The 1.9 million loss is not covered: nothing was stolen or damaged. At renewal the insurer brings the agreed value down to 100,000 euros; a theft one month before the revision would have been paid at 2 million.
catalog raisonne, authentication board, artist catalog of works, catalog inclusion, work excluded from the catalog
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