Do you need a certificate of authenticity for your artwork?
Give buyers a signed record of your artwork. Learn when a certificate is useful, what it can establish, and how it helps at handover and resale.
What does a certificate of authenticity do?
If you sell or give away your own artwork, a certificate is a useful record to send with it. Check the requirements of any gallery or platform handling the sale. Your certificate records your statement as the artist; it does not independently authenticate an object.
A certificate of authenticity records your statement that you made an artwork. It gives the collector the work’s details, your signature, and a way to contact you.
For a painting, drawing, sculpture, or other one-off piece, these facts can stay with the work when it is gifted or resold.
In the 2025 Art Basel and UBS survey of high-net-worth collectors, direct purchases from artists made up 20% of spending in 2024–25, more than twice the share reported in the previous survey. As more work moves straight from studio to buyer, a certificate gives that buyer a clear starting record of the piece and its maker.
Buyers want proof of what they are buying
In Hiscox’s 2023 Online Art Trade Report, 78% said a certificate of authenticity would make them more confident buying art and collectibles online; 84% said the same for provenance tracking. These are measures of buyer confidence, not a count of requests for certificates. Give buyers a photograph, title, dimensions, materials, and your signed statement so they can compare the record with the work they receive.
Some sales channels make the expectation explicit. Saatchi Art requires artists to include a hand-signed certificate when shipping original works to collectors. If you sell directly, preparing one before handover means you can answer the same questions without sending buyers back to an old listing.
Build lasting collector relationships
Existing buyers matter. In the 2026 Art Basel and UBS dealer report, existing collectors accounted for 51% of buyers and 62% of sales by value in 2025. These are dealer figures, not a prediction for an individual artist, but they show the value of staying in touch after a sale.
A Markmy digital certificate links back to your artist profile. From there, a collector can choose to subscribe to updates or send an inquiry about a work for sale. Give them a simple way to reply through the contact links you publish. Opening a certificate does not tell you who the viewer is or add anyone to your mailing list.
Support a secondary market for your work
Public auction sales, one visible part of the resale market, rose 9% to $20.7 billion in 2025. The increase was driven mainly by expensive works, so it does not predict demand for yours. A certificate cannot create a resale market on its own. It can, however, give a future buyer a starting record to compare with the artwork, the original invoice, and any later ownership history.
In some places, qualifying resales can also earn the artist a royalty. In the UK, Artist’s Resale Right applies to eligible sales through art market professionals from £1,000; sales between private individuals do not qualify. A certificate does not create the right or automatically report a sale, but clear artwork records can help you identify your work when it changes hands.
See where your work is being discovered
If you create a scannable digital certificate for your artwork, you can see the approximate locations where people open it around the world. A scan in a new country might reveal interest you did not expect. If you know a collector there, you can ask whether the work could join a nearby exhibition or be available for a loan.
A point on the map shows where someone viewed the certificate, not where the physical artwork is or who owns it. Update the artwork’s recorded location when a collector confirms a move; treat scan locations as clues, not an ownership record.
Sources & further reading
- Art Basel and UBS — Survey of Global Collecting 2025, sales channels
- Hiscox — Online Art Trade Report 2023
- Saatchi Art — Certificate requirements for artist shipments
- Art Basel and UBS — Art Market Report 2026, dealer outlook
- Art Basel and UBS — Art Market Report 2026, auctions
- UK Intellectual Property Office — Artist’s Resale Right
