Imagine looking at an auction catalog description that says: “Old painting, looks Dutch (or something like that).” But describing that same picture as “follower of Rembrandt” or “in the manner of Rembrandt” piques the interest of the buyer. Maybe it’s an unknown Rembrandt, or maybe it’s as close to a Rembrandt as you can afford. “The name of an important artist still gets people excited, even if the work is not by that artist,” Monica Brown, managing director of fine art at Freeman Auctions, told the Observer.
At Freeman’s 2025 Vintage and 19th Century Art Auction, one painting, View of Pacino with Bucintoro and Gondola The painting, attributed to the “Canaletto Method,” sold for $25,600, well above its estimate of $4,000 to $6,000. Canaletto was a respected Venetian painter who c. 1732 canvas Venice, The Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day He set an auction record for the artist in July last year at Christie’s, earning $43.9 million, but how do you value a picture that only resembles his work? In the same auction there was another painting, The Grand Canal looking south from Molo with a view of Santa Maria della Saluteattributed to “one of Canaletto’s followers” which also sold for $25,600. One might guess that the same person bought both pictures, perhaps hoping to arrive at a more accurate attribution for the work which, if it turns out to be a genuine canaletto, could also be worth tens of millions of dollars. It would be like buying a scratch ticket at the gas station that turned out to be the winning Mega Millions ticket.
“Method of…” and “continued to…” are just some of the auction house designations that have no real art historical meaning but are a form of marketing, according to Richard Wright, partner and CEO of the Rago/Wright auction house group. “Honestly, it’s a way of saying, ‘We really don’t know.'” This term of ignorance has its own hierarchy, as shown in Sotheby’s Official Glossary of Terms. Artworks that cannot be fully verified are placed on a sliding scale of information and beliefs:
1 Giovanni Bellini is in our opinion a work of the artist. (If the artist’s first name is not known, a series of asterisks, followed by the artist’s surname, whether preceded by an initial or not, indicates that the work is in our opinion by the named artist.
2 attributed to Giovanni Bellini, in our opinion, is probably a work by the artist but less certainty is expressed as to the authorship than in the previous category.
3 Giovanni Bellini’s Studio In our opinion a work made by an anonymous hand in the artist’s studio which may or may not have been executed under the artist’s supervision.
4 Giovanni Bellini Circle is in our opinion the work of a hitherto unknown but distinct hand, closely associated with the aforementioned artist but not necessarily with his student.
5 Style…………continued by Giovanni Bellini In our opinion the work of a painter working in the style of the artist, contemporary or semi-contemporary, but not necessarily his student.
6 Giovanni Bellini’s method is in our opinion a work in the artist’s style and later date.
7 After Giovanni Bellini in our opinion is a copy of a well-known work of the artist.
Only the first label, “By Giovanni Bellini”, is art historical and legal. Primarily, attribution is authenticated through documentation of a particular painting – known as a provenance, providing a chain of ownership from the artist’s studio to the present-day consignor – and/or the opinion of recognized experts on the artist’s work, such as academics or independent scholars.
“A consignor brings in Giacometti, and we send photographs of her and any documents to Paris for authentication,” Wright explained. Paris here refers to the France-based Giacometti Foundation, which has a certification committee that verifies the authenticity of paintings, sculptures, drawings and decorative art objects by Swiss-born Alberto Giacometti. “Otherwise we need sales records.”
He added that the auction houses he supervises have research teams looking for experts, or in the absence of known experts, dealers in artists’ works are specifically sought out to obtain their opinions. Often, these opinions are provided for free, but sometimes experts ask for between $150 and $5,000. If payment is required, “there is usually a negotiation with the consignor about who pays. It is usually the consignor,” although the cost may be split if the work is certified as being by a particular artist. “If the piece is authenticated, it usually sells.”
Without full attribution, a work represents a gamble for the auction house, consignor, and buyer alike. According to Wright, a work properly attributed to Giacometti might sell for $100,000, while a work attributed solely to the artist could be estimated at $2,000 to $3,000.
Marianne Berandi, director of European art at Heritage Auctions, told the Observer that the cost to the consignor is usually lower if the experts contacted are willing to provide opinions based on photographs of the artwork. However, “many artist institutions, especially those in France, would like to see the original, which requires shipping the work” abroad, which greatly increases the cost of authentication.
Claiming that a particular work of art is “by” a particular artist is ultimately a matter of law—warranty—as the Uniform Commercial Code in all fifty states requires that the items be what the seller claims, or that the seller—in this case, the auction house, though it could be an art gallery—is obligated to take them back and refund the money paid. Works of art “attributed to…”, “studio…”, “circle…” or anything else do not enjoy similar protection.
Auction houses regularly deal with works of art whose owners claim to be by famous artists, and in many cases, these consignors receive unwelcome news. At the same Freeman sale, a consignor claimed the painting Capriccio with figures gathered around the Obelisk of Augustus, view of the Pantheon, statue of Marcus Aurelius and the Temple of Cybele, Tivoli “It’s by Giovanni Paolo Panini, and we showed it to some specialists who said it was by Panini and others who said they couldn’t be sure but it might be Panini’s school,” Brown said. “It wasn’t final, so we attributed it to ‘Giovanni Paolo Panini and Studio.’” The painting sold for $76,700, well below the estimate of $100,000 to $150,000 — the art market’s way of saying “maybe, maybe not.”
Informing senders that their work has not been verified by the artists they claim to be can be risky. “Some consignors are taking their work back, perhaps to try their luck at another auction house,” she said. “However, if the estimate does not change based on attribution, consignors are usually satisfied and allow us to sell it.”
Then there are works of art that are only partially done by the artist. Berandi said John Constable painted many portraits throughout his career and had a studio of apprentice artists assisting him. “You wouldn’t expect Constable to draw every square inch of these pictures, but you can recognize some areas that clearly look like Constable’s hand.” In those cases, the artwork is credited to “John Constable and Studio”.
Buyers of works of art with uncertain attributes vary in their motivations. Some winning bidders are dealers of specific artists, or treasure-hunting collectors willing to do some research to prove the authenticity of the art. “Some buyers seem to have more information than we do,” Wright said. “They’re not just buying a lottery ticket.” He pointed to a work in a 2021 auction at Rago Auctions that was identified as being by an “unknown artist” and titled Infanta Margarita Teresa from Spain. It resembled paintings by Diego Velazquez and was estimated at $2,000 to $3,000 but sold for $27,500. Perhaps in the future it will appear at a major Velasquez auction house with an estimate in the millions of dollars. Likewise, someone bid on a painting of feathered creatures at Freeman’s Nov. 4 auction that was untitled and attributed to “A Follower of Melchior de Hondekoyter (1636-1695) | Attributed to Phillips van Coyenbergh (1671-1729),” when it sold for $89,400 against a $15,000-20,000 estimate.
Part of the job of Old Masters traders is to find misattributed or underpriced works by famous artists, and they do to works of art what hedge fund traders do to securities. One of the most notable examples of misattribution occurred in 2006 when Sotheby’s in London sold a painting titled Sharp cardsnamed in the catalog as a follower of the Italian Baroque artist Caravaggio, for £42,000; It was later reattributed as a real Caravaggio, leading to a lawsuit. The auction house had consulted Caravaggio experts who claimed that the painting sent was a copy of another displayed at the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. The consignor claimed that the auction house was negligent, but in early 2015, the High Court in London decided that Sotheby’s had “reasonably reached an opinion that the quality of the painting was not high enough to indicate that it might be by Caravaggio.”
But some buyers simply like the look of a particular artwork, thinking it suits their home’s overall decor or fits in well with an existing art collection. Interior designers often “create” their work in the “way…” and “style…” categories that suit their clients’ tastes, Berandi said. If the bidding price isn’t that high, there’s no real harm in buying it and “you can get a lot of paintings for your money.”
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