# What a Catalogue Raisonne Is, and Why Its Entries Get Fought Over > The market reads a catalogue raisonne as a register of title in authorship. A New York court, and the compilers themselves, say it is nothing of the sort. > The Study - 2026-08-02 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/study/what-a-catalogue-raisonne-is/ ## Key points - The Wildenstein Plattner Institute tells readers to treat catalogues raisonnes as authored publications rather than objective resources. - A New York court held that a catalogue raisonne's authority is a function of the marketplace rather than of any legal directive. - Both Sotheby's and Christie's refused to sell a Pollock that Knoedler had sold for USD 17 million and that the catalogue raisonne omitted. - IFAR, which indexed more than 5,000 catalogues raisonnes, announced its wind-down in September 2024 and its database is offline. ## What it is, according to the people who compile them ## The authority is conventional, and a court has said exactly that ## Exclusion is the event that destroys value ## Who funds the corpus has an interest in its size ## Editions change, and the field's index has just gone dark ## What it means for an artist with no catalogue at all The catalogue raisonne is a scholarly document that the market reads as a title register, and every fight that happens around one grows out of that single mismatch. The compilers say so themselves: authored rather than objective, inclusion no guarantee of authenticity, no obligation to answer a submission at all. The courts have refused to convert convention into duty. What has changed recently is that the index of the indexes has closed, so the field now has neither a legal authority nor a central map of the private ones it actually obeys. ## Questions **Is a catalogue raisonne legally binding?** No. In Thome v Calder Foundation the New York Appellate Division held that whether the art world accepts a catalogue raisonne as a definitive listing is a function of the marketplace rather than of any legal directive, that compiling one is a voluntary act, and that courts cannot meaningfully declare authenticity. **Does inclusion prove a work is authentic?** The Wildenstein Plattner Institute states directly that inclusion is not a guarantee of authenticity, and asks readers to treat catalogues as authored publications rather than objective resources. Inclusion establishes that a particular compiler, in a particular edition, accepted the work. **Can a work be added later?** Yes, in a supplement or a new edition, and it is one of the main routes by which a rediscovered picture is rehabilitated. The reverse also happens quietly, which is why a citation should always name the edition and its year rather than the catalogue in general. **How do I find out whether an artist has a catalogue raisonne?** This became substantially harder in 2025. IFAR maintained the central index of more than 5,000 published and in-preparation catalogues; it announced its wind-down in September 2024 and the database is offline. For now the practical route is the Catalogue Raisonne Scholars Association, individual foundations, and specialist library catalogues. ## Sources - [1] Wildenstein Plattner Institute, 'What is a Catalogue Raisonne, and Why is it Useful?', 29 March 2024. - [2] Catalogue Raisonne Scholars Association, 'About'. - [3] Catalogue Raisonne Scholars Association, 'Guidelines for Issuing Scholarly Opinions about Authenticity', revised March 2016. - [4] College Art Association, 'Authentications and Attributions', adopted 25 October 2009. - [5] Thome v Alexander and Louisa Calder Foundation, 70 A.D.3d 88, New York Appellate Division, First Department, 1 December 2009. - [6] Calder Foundation, 'Registration and Examination', on the limits of registration. - [7] Leila A. Amineddoleh, 'Are You Faux Real? An Examination of Art Forgery and the Legal Tools Protecting Art Collectors', Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal vol. 34 (2016), on Lagrange, Simon-Whelan and Bilinski. - [8] Center for Art Law, 'Art Authentication: Another Foundation Comes Under Scrutiny', on the Dedalus Foundation and the withdrawn letter of authenticity. - [9] ARTnews, 'Longtime Art Authentication Nonprofit IFAR to Shut Down After 55 Years', 27 September 2024. - [10] International Foundation for Art Research, catalogues raisonnes database description, archived 7 May 2025, giving the figure of more than 5,000 catalogues. - [11] Donal Cooper, 'A long-lost Cimabue has emerged in a French kitchen', Apollo, 14 October 2019, on the size of the accepted Cimabue corpus.