Research you can interrogate.
Every material statement should be traceable to a source, a verification date, an interpretation and an explicit record of what remains unknown.
From source to usable intelligence.
The process is designed to prevent a research note from looking more certain than the underlying evidence allows.
Source
Start with the most authoritative current material available.
- Law, regulation or government guidance
- Auction-house terms and official sale documentation
- Museum, foundation or catalogue raisonné material
- Licensed market databases and published records
Verify
Record exactly what the source proves and what it does not.
- Jurisdiction and issuing body
- Effective or publication date
- Scope and applicability
- Version / last checked date
Cross-check
Compare material facts against a second source where the consequence of error is material.
- Conflicting fee schedules
- Export thresholds or licence requirements
- Provenance chronology
- Market comparables and currency treatment
Interpret
Convert verified material into buyer-facing implications without presenting interpretation as fact.
- What applies to this transaction
- What depends on the object or buyer
- What is an estimate
- What still needs evidence
Escalate
Identify questions that require regulated, legal, tax, customs, conservation or authentication expertise.
- Formal legal interpretation
- Tax or customs rulings
- Authenticity conclusions
- Condition diagnosis or conservation advice
Record
Preserve the reasoning path so the research can be rechecked later.
- Sources consulted
- Verification dates
- Open questions
- Reviewer and next review date
Not all evidence carries the same weight.
We prefer primary, transaction-specific evidence. Secondary sources are used for context, discovery and corroboration—not as a substitute for an available primary source.
Primary / controlling
Statutes, regulations, government notices, customs/tax authority guidance, official auction-house terms, official catalogue records and transaction documents.
Institutional / specialist
Museums, artist estates, foundations, catalogue raisonnés, scholarly publications, licensed market databases and specialist professional material.
Secondary / contextual
Trade press, reputable journalism, market commentary and established reference publications used for context or leads that still require verification.
Unverified / user-supplied
Seller statements, screenshots, informal correspondence, third-party claims or undocumented assertions. These are recorded as claims until independently supported.
How certainty is communicated.
Directly supported
A current authoritative source directly supports the statement and the scope matches the transaction or rule being described.
Supported by more than one source
Two or more independent sources materially agree, with no unresolved contradiction affecting the conclusion.
Useful, but conditional
The information is directionally useful but depends on facts that are not yet fully established, such as buyer status, object age or destination treatment.
Insufficient evidence
The available material does not support a reliable conclusion. The gap remains visible rather than being filled with an assumption.
We do not average conflicting facts.
When sources disagree, the conflict becomes part of the research record.
Prefer the controlling or more recent authority, while recording the superseded or conflicting source.
Do not merge competing ownership histories. List each claim separately and identify the documentary gap.
Record date, venue, currency, premium treatment and relevant differences before using a sale as context.
Use “unknown”, “not supplied” or “not independently verified” instead of inferring the answer.
Research is date-stamped, not timeless.
The boundary is part of the methodology.
- We do not authenticate artworks.
- We do not give legal, tax or customs advice.
- We do not provide investment recommendations or return forecasts.
- We do not convert incomplete provenance into a claim of clean title.
- We do not treat auction estimates as fair value.
- We do not hide unresolved questions to produce a cleaner-looking report.