- Signatures
- Illegible signatures
- Unsigned paintings
- Monograms
- Unknown Monograms
- Symbols
- Collections' and collectors' stamps, seals and marks since the 1500s
- Stamps, labels and stencils found on the back of paintings
- Unknown artists
- Artists who used different names
- Artists biographies
- Artists bibliographies since the 1500s
- Exhibitions since the 1700s
- Auction sales since the 1600s
- Other works by the same artist
- Artists works in museums and collections
- Works that have no recorded history, no documented origin or provenance
- Paintings that were found or acquired in unusual or unexpected circumstances or places
- Paintings that have a family tradition of being by an important artist
- Paintings that have never been researched
- Paintings mistaken as copies when in fact they are the originals
- Paintings labeled as copies which might be duplicate originals
- Original of a painting in museums and collections
- Copies of a painting in museums and collections
- Related works by other artists
- Works which may have been executed as a sketch for a well known painting
- Juvenalia
- Atypical works
- Unfinished works
- Long lost paintings
- Old attributions and authentications
- Questionable attributions
- Paintings which have been rejected for frivolous reasons
- Authentications which have been denied
- Paintings which have been declared to be forgeries without any serious research
- Provenance
- Historical evidence
- History of ownership
- Date or period paintings were executed
- Country or region where paintings were executed
- Schools and styles
- Location of landscapes, cities, landmarks represented in paintings
- Identity of portraits
- Nature, location, date of events depicted
- Iconography and allegories. Legendary, religious, mythological, esoteric, hermetic
- Restoration which has been performed
- Modifications to the subject, size or support
- Nature, age and origin of art materials and frames since the 1200s
- Age, origin and meaning of inscriptions
- The market for an artist
- Museums seeking works by a certain artist
- Galleries for an artist
- Works for sale by a certain artist
- Market value
- Insurance value
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Information increases the value of art. The most important piece of information is of course who painted it or created it? This is not all. Who it belonged to in the past, in what circumstances it was created or for whom, what it represents (and this is not always obvious), what some of the elements in the composition are and what they mean, where and when it was exhibited, where it has been published, the relationship of the painting to other works; historical significance, artistic merit, where and how it fits in the chronology of the artist, all of the answers to these questions increase importance, significance, desirability and the value of a work of art. |
