Methodology

What a record is

A record is one page for one work of art. It states what the work is, where it is now, every owner we can document, where it has been exhibited, what has been written about it, and what it has made at auction. It is not an essay and it is not a biography of the artist.

Source hierarchy

We prefer, in order: the holding institution's own record; catalogues raisonnes; period documents such as wills, inventories and dealer stockbooks; auction catalogues; scholarly literature; contemporary press. A claim that rests only on press is marked as such.

How certainty is marked

Every link in a provenance chain is graded. Documented means a cited source supports it. Disputed means the identification is argued but not established. Unknown means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. We do not smooth a gap into a narrative.

The evidence gate

A record is published only when it carries at least two cited sources, at least 300 words of researched prose, and a provenance chain in which every link is graded. An ungraded assertion is what fails the gate. We do not set a minimum number of documented links: a chain-length rule rewards the smooth chain and punishes the honest one, and for many objects the surviving record is two documented links and a two-hundred-year hole. Where that is what the evidence shows, the record says so and is published. The gate is executed in code, not asserted here: it lives in one file, ships with a self-test, and every published record passes it.

AI assistance

We use AI tools to help find, compile and cross-check sources. Every factual claim is tied to a cited source. Editorial responsibility for everything published here rests with the Editor-in-Chief, who is named in the imprint; every record carries a change log and the date it was last verified, so what changed and when is on the page rather than in our files. AI is not used to generate images of real works of art.

Images

Works in the public domain are reproduced and credited to the holding institution. Works still in copyright are not reproduced; we link to the rights holder instead. We never generate or simulate an image of a real work of art.

Corrections

We correct openly. Every record carries a change log and a last-verified date. Write to [email protected] with the correction and, if you can, the source.