How our certificates work: a ledger that follows the work, not a PDF

In an earlier guide we said what a certificate must contain. This one explains how ours does it, because the method is the point: a certificate is only as good as the way it can be checked, and a PDF can be checked by nobody. Ours is a ledger.

Issued at the sale, signed by three people

When a work is paid for, a certificate is drafted automatically from the record of the work: title, year, medium, dimensions, edition and number, the gallery’s SKU, a photograph, the date and the first owner. It is then signed three times, by the artist, by the collector and by the gallery, each through a link sent to their own email that records who signed, when and from where. Nothing is printed until the three signatures exist. A certificate with one signature missing says so, publicly.

Anchored: nothing edited, only appended

Every event in a certificate’s life (its issue, each signature, a transfer, a loan, a restoration, a revocation) is written as a new entry that carries a cryptographic hash of the previous one. The chain cannot be edited without breaking every later link, which is what makes it a ledger rather than a document. We cannot quietly change a date or a name, and neither can anyone who takes over from us. The register is ours, but the proof is arithmetic.

Verified by anyone, in a minute

Each certificate carries a code and a QR. Either opens a public page that shows the work, the three signatures and the full history, without asking who is looking. An insurer, an auction house, a customs officer or a future buyer can confirm the certificate without trusting the paper or us. The printed PDF is a convenience; the page is the truth.

Transferred on resale, with the artist’s share

When you sell or give the work, the transfer is a new entry: the new owner signs by email, the previous owner is recorded as such, and the price band is noted. Where the artist’s resale right applies (the EU and the UK), the royalty is booked at that moment and paid through the gallery, so the next owner inherits a clean record and the artist is paid what the law provides. Where it does not apply, the entry still exists, because provenance is the value.

What it records for life

The identity of the work and its first sale.

Every owner, in order, with the date each took over.

Loans to institutions and exhibitions the work appeared in.

Condition events: restorations, reframing, damage and repair.

Revocation, if a work turns out not to be what it was declared: rare, and public.

What it is not

It is not a cryptocurrency, a token, or anything you need a wallet for. It is not a substitute for the invoice, which remains the tax document. And it does not replace the artist’s own word: the artist signs each certificate, and a certificate an artist has not signed is marked as pending, not as valid.

What to do with yours

Sign it when the email arrives; the work is not fully documented until you do.

Keep the PDF with the invoice, and the code somewhere you will find it in ten years.

When the work moves (a loan, a move, a sale), tell us, and the entry is added.

Verify any certificate you are shown by someone else the same way: through the page, never through the paper.

A certificate that can be verified by a stranger is worth more than one signed by a friend. Ours can be checked by anyone, forever, and that is the whole design.

How avant.dev helps

Art advisory is what we do every day from Mexico City: we help collectors discover, acquire and build collections of original contemporary art, with the paperwork, the delivery and the certificate handled. If you would like a second opinion before your next acquisition, book a free 30-minute consultation or browse the works available now.