Cat Burglar

The Authority on Provenance · CBPS 1.0
The authority on provenance

Cat
Burglar

Every work has been somewhere. We prove where, and we say plainly where the record runs out.

Authentication files, case building, fakes watch, research, consignment and a living map of the art world, under one standard.

Authenticate a WorkBuild a Case
Move slowly through the beams
Passed 0  ·  Tripped 0
The promise

Proof, Not Provenance by Assertion

The art market runs on stories: a dealer's word, a family's memory, a label on the back. Cat Burglar turns those stories into evidence. We read every document, test every claim against the record, label each finding by the strength of its proof, and stand behind the result with our name and our Stamp.

Two ways in

Authenticate, or Build the Case

Some works arrive with a file. Most arrive with a story. We take either.

I

Authenticate

You hold the documents. We assemble the file the recognised authority for the artist expects, commission the science it calls for, and route it for an opinion.

  • Every document fingerprinted, read and evidence-labelled
  • Framed against sales, exhibitions, literature and known cases
  • A bound memorandum; the Stamp on senior sign-off
Begin intake
II

Build a Case

The paper is thin. We reconstruct where the work has been, find the records that should exist, and write the case from the evidence up.

  • Each claimed appearance tested against the record
  • Custody gaps mapped, archive requests prepared
  • Open questions kept as leads, never as verdicts
Open a case
The house

What Cat Burglar Does

i

Watch

Public sales and listings monitored against the record. Anything without a file reads Not Cat Burglar verified.

Enter the watch →
ii

Consign

Works placed with their file attached: proven provenance, fully disclosed, offered with discretion.

The salon →
iii

The Map

Artists, houses, collectors and events, and every documented line between them.

Open the map →
iv

Research

Archives, catalogues and technical studies, with the open questions that would settle a history.

The library →
Who it is for

For Everyone Who Must Be Sure

Collectors

Buy with the record in hand, and hold works whose history can be shown, not merely told.

Galleries & dealers

Offer inventory with a file that answers the buyer's questions before they are asked.

Auction houses

Independent provenance review ahead of cataloguing, and a clear line on what the record supports.

Insurers & lenders

Underwrite and lend against works whose custody and condition history is documented and verifiable.

Estates & heirs

Turn family papers and memory into an ordered, evidence-labelled file the market will respect.

How it works

Follow the Beam

A provenance is a line of light from the studio to today. Where the line breaks, we go looking.

The studio
Origin
Canvas, stretcher, the artist's own marks.
The dealer
First hands
Stock books, labels, consignment records.
The exhibition
Seen
Checklists, reviews, installation photographs.
The saleroom
Sold
Lots, catalogues, annotated prices.
The gap
Silence
No record yet. A lead to pursue, never a verdict.
Cat Burglar
Proven
Framed, tested, signed. The Stamp.
I
Intake

Every document fingerprinted and read; each claim logged at the evidence it carries.

II
Engines

People, places, period, materials and appraisals, each tested by its own instrument.

III
The record

Each appearance framed against sales, exhibitions, literature and known cases.

IV
Memorandum

One bound document: chronology, findings, what is still needed, quality checks.

V
The Stamp

Issued only after senior human sign-off, sealed with a digital signature.

The mark of the house

The Stamp of Approval

The Stamp attests that a work's provenance file has been reviewed against the Cat Burglar Provenance Standard and meets its documentation threshold. It is issued only after a senior reviewer signs off in person, and every certificate carries a digital signature anyone can verify.

The Stamp speaks to the record, not to authorship or value. It is not an authentication, attribution, appraisal or offer, and it does not replace the recognised authority for an artist. Until a Stamp is issued, every work reads Not Cat Burglar verified, which is a status, never a judgement.

Begin

Bring Us a Work

Tell us what you hold and what you know. Nothing is published, and nothing leaves the house without your consent.

Authenticate a Work   Build a Case   Consign