Method and limits

Every judgment has a reason. Every report has a date.

ART EVIDENCE applies a proprietary algorithm to analyse the data and documents entered in a dossier. On this basis it produces a report that assesses, item by item and with reasons, the completeness and consistency of the documentation accompanying the work.

The algorithm follows written rules (method CRA 2.0.1). With the same data, on the same date and with the same version of the rules, the result is always the same; every report states the version and a fingerprint of the data it was calculated on.

The two judgments

Documentary completeness and consistency

• A1 Image of the front (required)
• A2 Basic data (required)
• A3 Authoritative source (required)
• A4 Identifying views
• A5 Signature and inscriptions
• A6 Provenance
• A7 Exhibitions and literature
• A8 Known versions

Documentary completeness to continue reviewing the offer

• B1 Owner (required)
• B2 Acquisition title (required)
• B3 Authorisations (required)
• B4 Economic terms (required)
• B5 Location and circulation (required)
• B6 Restrictions and disputes (required)
• B7 Stolen art registers (required)
• B8 Condition (required)

What the colours mean

• Green — the required items are met and no point is left open. It does not mean the documents are genuine.
• Yellow — "insufficient documentation" when essential elements are missing (the front and basic data of the work; the owner and authorisations for the offer), or "additions needed" when a required item is missing or partial, or points remain to be examined.
• Red — only after someone has confirmed it: a substantial contradiction between documents or with an external source, or a hit in a stolen art register confirmed as concerning this work. The system never turns a dossier red on its own.
• Suspended — exceptional and manual: the holder of the dossier suspends it with a reason, for example if the work proves to be stolen or disputed. Both judgments stay suspended until the holder lifts it.

Reading the documents and sources consulted

• You upload the documents in any format: PDF, photographs, scans, screenshots. The ART EVIDENCE AI reads them, extracts the information (details of the work, signature and inscriptions, changes of ownership, provenance, exhibitions and literature, authorisations) and enters it in the file.
• ART EVIDENCE consults public stolen art databases and online sources, and records in the file which source was consulted, when and with what outcome.
• The information read or found by the AI enters the file as a proposal, showing where it comes from: it counts in the judgments only after whoever manages the dossier confirms it.
• The AI gathers and organises the information; the judgments are calculated by the rules of the method, always the same.

What is done automatically

• Comparison of the data declared and those in the documents: artist (including initials and, for the artists in the knowledge base, known name variants), technique and support, dimensions (inches, frame, height and width swapped), dates (circa, decades, centuries).
• For the artists in the knowledge base: a question when a date falls after the artist's death (posthumous cast or edition?).
• Check that a stolen art register search has been recorded, and that it is no older than 30 days.
• Every difference found is a point to examine: it does not change the judgments as a contradiction until someone confirms it.

What you decide

• Whether to confirm the information read or found by the AI.
• The type of each document and whether it refers to this work.
• Whether each point raised is confirmed or dismissed, with a reason, and whether it is substantial or minor.
• Whether a register hit concerns this work. Whether to suspend the dossier.
• Every decision is recorded with who took it, when and why.

What ART EVIDENCE does not do

• It does not consult every existing source: some databases are private or paid, and no hit in the sources consulted does not mean absence from every register.
• It does not guarantee that the AI reads every document correctly: that is why every piece of information read must be confirmed.
• It does not authenticate or attribute works, and does not value them.
• It does not establish the legal validity of ownership, titles or mandates.
• It does not buy, sell or broker works of art.
• It does not detect every problem: no points raised does not prove the documents genuine.

Your documents, your decisions

• Sharing: nothing is shared automatically. You choose what to share and with whom, document by document, after seeing the names; you confirm or reject the data read by the AI.
• Security: everything is stored encrypted, each document with its own key.
• Access by the service: ART EVIDENCE, which runs the service, may consult dossiers only for internal analysis aimed at improving the service and the assessment method, through authorised staff and with every access logged; never for commercial use or brokerage. These accesses do not depend on your sharing choices and are governed by the privacy notice. Privacy notice

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