What Every Collector of Art Should Know About Authenticity
September 7th, 2007 by FineArtRegistry
Why The Supreme Court’s Daubert Standard Matters to Art Collectors Who Use Experts to Establish Authenticity
Art collectors, museums and galleries are increasingly relying on scientific or “forensic” information to authenticate artworks, looking to science to reveal not only the origins of a piece but also information about its restoration and provenance. The representations that an art seller or broker makes about the creator and origins of an artwork are a major component of the buyer’s decision to acquire the piece. That purchase is a contract – a contract that could wind up in court if it turns out those representations are questionable. So the question of whether the evidence used to authenticate an artwork would stand up in court is critical for art sellers and purchasers.
In this article– the first of a series of articles coming soon– attorney and Fine Art Registry™ legal analyst Cindy Hill explains the basic legal practice rules that determine what kinds and quality of evidence are admissible in court. These rules determine if and when an expert witness will be allowed to testify on issues like paint chemistry, fingerprints, and painter’s style elements. If you are hiring an expert to examine your artwork for purposes of research or authentication, you will want to ensure that expert has the qualifications to meet these legal standards. If your expert does not meet these qualifications, he or she will not be allowed to testify in court, and the money you spent for their expert opinion will be for naught. In this article you will learn what general expert qualifications are, why they are important, and the tests and questions which courts put to experts before they will allow their testimony to be heard. The coming articles will go through the standards applied specifically to each kind of expert likely to be called to testify at an art authenticity trial.
Once an expert is qualified to testify in court, the substance of their testimony – the scientific and academic methods they use in their testing and examinations– are then put to another legal test. This article explains, in easy to understand language, the legal “Daubert” standard for admissibility of scientific evidence in court. Is the person you hired to authenticate your painting using tried-and-true, peer-tested methods that withstand court and scientific scrutiny, or are they using smoke-and-mirrors and quackery which will never hold up in court? Learn the five factors that courts apply in determining whether the kinds of testing applied to determine a painting’s authenticity are reliable enough to be taken into consideration by a judge and jury. Anyone can make a claim regarding scientific testing on an artwork – but will that claim hold up in court? This article, and the series on art expert standards which will follow, helps you determine whether your authentication experts meet the legal standards.
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