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ARTICLE · 29 DECEMBER 2011

Cherchez Les Catalogues Raisonné

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The success of the art market depends largely on confidence in the authenticity of artists’ works.

United StatesMedia, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment

The success of the art market depends largely on confidence in the authenticity of artists' works. Traditionally, a work in an artist's "catalogue raisonné" has been key to confirming the authenticity, and thus value. To that point, a recent lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ("S.D.N.Y.") regarding a purported Jackson Pollock work underscores the importance of the catalogue raisonné in pre-purchase due diligence, and shows that omission from the catalogue could be potentially disastrous to the value of a work. See Lagrange v. Knoedler Gallery, LLC, 11-cv-8757 (S.D.N.Y.) (filed Dec. 1, 2011).

A catalogue raisonné is designed to be a comprehensive compilation of artist works, describing the works in a way that may be reliably identified by third parties. As scholarly compilations of an artist's body of work, catalogues raisonnés are critical tools for researching the attribution and provenance of artwork. In a catalogue

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