← OG Academy · Price and sell with confidence · 4 min
Certificates of authenticity made simple
A certificate is not bureaucracy. It is the document that lets your work be resold, insured and inherited.
What it must contain
Title, year, medium and support, exact dimensions, edition number if it is an edition, your full name, and your signature. Add a small photograph of the work — that single detail prevents most future confusion.
Keep it to one page. A certificate that looks like a contract makes buyers nervous rather than reassured.
Sign it by hand
A printed signature undermines the entire point. Sign each certificate in ink, and number them in your own records so you can confirm authenticity years later.
Keep a simple register: number, title, buyer, date, price. A spreadsheet is enough, and it will save you when a work resurfaces at auction.
Editions need a little more
For prints and photographs, state the edition size, the number of artist proofs, the printing method, the paper, and whether the plate or file has been retired. Collectors of editions genuinely care about all of it.
Never expand an edition after publishing it. It is the one mistake in this field that cannot be repaired.
Add care instructions
Two or three lines: no direct sunlight, dust with a dry soft brush, do not clean with water or solvents, allow the work to acclimatise before hanging.
Buyers rarely know how to look after art. Telling them kindly protects both the work and your reputation.
W skrócie
One page, hand signed, with the facts and a photo of the work, logged in your own register, plus a few lines of care instructions.