What catalogue raisonnés or critical catalogues are being prepared by the WPI?
The WPI will create a collective “Digital Catalogue” of catalogue raisonnés and critical catalogues, accessible online, for the following artists:
Paul Gauguin
Camille Pissarro
Édouard Manet
Albert Marquet
Claude Monet
Berthe Morisot
Odilon Redon
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Kees Van Dongen*
Maurice de Vlaminck
*Only paintings, not works on paper
Does the WPI authenticate works of art?
No. The WPI does not authenticate works of art or make any representation on the value of works of art.
Does the WPI seize or destroy works of art?
No. The WPI does not seize, destroy or physically alter any work of art submitted for examination.
If the Wildenstein Institute already issued an “Attestation” for a work by one of the artists listed above, will that work be included in the WPI Digital Catalogue?
With the exception of Van Dongen, the works that were given “Attestations of Inclusion” by the Wildenstein Institute will be included in the relevant WPI digital catalogue. However, we reserve the right to reconsider a previous decision if new scholarly information becomes available.
Is there a new Van Dongen catalogue raisonné?
Yes. On September 28, 2017, the WPI began preparing a new digital Catalogue raisonné on the paintings of Kees van Dongen. We are grateful to Jean-Marie van Dongen for his encouragement of this project. Working in consultation with Dr. Anita Hopmans, Senior Research Manager at the RKD (Netherlands Institute for Art History) in The Hague, the WPI will continue to review all oil paintings attributed to the artist for future publication online. At the moment, we are not preparing a Digital Catalogue for Van Dongen works on paper.
What is the status of the Van Dongen Catalogue raisonné that was being prepared by the Wildenstein Institute?Any painting that was issued an “Attestation” by the Wildenstein Institute will need to be reviewed by the new committee in order to determine whether it will be included in the WPI Digital Catalogue. If you are in possession of an original letter of attestation from the Wildenstein Institute and would like the WPI to consider your work for possible inclusion in the Digital Catalogue, we will waive our Inclusion request fee of $2000 as a courtesy to you.
How do I confirm whether the Wildenstein Institute issued an Attestation Letter for a given work of art?
If you would simply like to know if a work was ever issued an Attestation of Inclusion from the Wildenstein Institute, you must submit a Research Request and pay a fee of $500, plus NY state sales tax.
If I am not in possession of the original “Attestation” from the Wildenstein Institute, do I need to submit the work again to the WPI?
If you want a written Decision Letter from the WPI, then yes, you will need to submit a Request for Inclusion application and pay a fee of $2000.
How do I get a Decision Letter from the WPI?
If your work does not have an original Attestation from the Wildenstein Institute, and you would like to receive a Decision Letter from the WPI regarding the inclusion in the Digital Catalogue, you will need to submit a Request for Inclusion application and pay a fee of $2000.
What is stated in the WPI’s Decision Letter?
Following the committee meeting, you will receive a letter from the WPI indicating that:
• the Work will be included in the WPI Digital Catalogue; or
• the Work will not be included in the WPI Digital Catalogue; or
• no determination about the Work can be made.
If the Work will be included in the Digital Catalogue, the WPI will also provide you with its cataloguing and any information that will be published on the work.
The above is not an exhaustive summary of the terms and conditions to which an application for catalogue raisonné inclusion is subject.
What are the fees involved?
Fee for archival research request: $500, plus New York state sales tax
Fee for a Decision Letter, indicating whether a work will be included in the WPI Digital Catalogue: $2000
When are the next committee meetings?
Each artist’s committee meeting will convene four times a year. The next meetings are scheduled for mid-September in Paris and early October in New York. You will be notified about the location and date of a specific committee meeting once we receive your completed Request for Inclusion application.
If I would like information from the archives about a particular work of art or artist, what should I do?
Please go to the “Submissions” tab and complete the required information. This service requires a pre-payment of $500, plus NY state sales tax.
If you have a more general question, please contact us at [email protected]
What is “Account Funds” and the “Top-up” system?
If you anticipate submitting multiple requests to the WPI going forward, you may want to create a fund for your account, from which we will draw the necessary fee for each request you process with us. Ultimately, you will have to send the money to our bank via a one-time wire transfer, but before you do this, you must do the following:
If you are logged in, under the submissions tab (https://wpi.art/submissions/), look at the right column and click “Account Funds”. Type in the amount you want to add to your fund and click “Top-up”. Review your data on the next page and click “Proceed to check-out”. To complete the process and submit your top-up order click “Place your order”. You will be redirected to the order confirmation page with our wire instructions. This multi-step process allows us to register your order and put it in a queue, where it will be released to us only after you transmit the wire and we receive it in our bank account.
Where can I find your wire instructions?
You will only see our bank transfer/wire instructions once you click “Place your order”. At that point, you will be directed to a screen that confirms your order is on hold, but we are still waiting for you to do the direct bank transfer (wire money) to our bank account. The wiring instructions should appear on this page. Your order will not be released from the holding queue and stay in the status “on-hold” until you have completed the direct bank transfer.
Can I simply just wire money to your account prior to filling out an order or topping-up funds?
Please do NOT do this. If you send us a wire transfer that has not been pre-registered into the “top-up fund” system, we have no way to relating the wire to any particular request or to your account.
Will I get a confirmation once the WPI has received the wire that I have sent?
Yes, you will automatically get an email from our system, indicating that we received the wire, that your fund is active and that your order has now been released from the holding queue for processing.