Basel, Switzerland — Cryptographic provenance for physical art
Prove.art bonds a bank-grade cryptographic chip to the work itself. Any buyer, anywhere, taps it with their phone and sees the verified record — artist, history, ownership. No app. No paper. No doubt.
In the demo, we tag a sample work live — you verify it from your own phone within the first five minutes.
The problem with provenance
A certificate of authenticity is only as trustworthy as the paper it's printed on. Scanned, reprinted, and attached to a copy, it puts your name behind a forgery.
A serious buyer's advisor asks for provenance documentation. Days pass. Emails. Scans of scans. The deal cools while everyone waits for paper to prove what a tap could prove in two seconds.
The chain of custody breaks the moment a work changes hands outside your gallery. Ten years later, at auction, nobody can reconstruct it — and the work is worth less because of it.
The art market loses an estimated $4–6 billion every year to forgery and misattribution. Not because experts fail — because records do.
Why prove.art
| Paper certificate | Online / blockchain registry | prove.art | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physically bound to the artwork | No | No | Yes — tamper-evident chip |
| Can be copied or reattached to a fake | Easily | The certificate is real; the link to the object is not | No — removal destroys the chip |
| What the buyer needs to verify | Trust | An account, an app, a lookup | Any phone. One tap. |
| Survives private resale | Rarely | If someone updates it | Travels with the work, always |
Digital certificates solved forgery of the record. They never solved the real problem: proving the record belongs to this object. prove.art closes that gap physically.
How it works
A physically unclonable NFC chip is discreetly attached to the artwork — conservation-safe mounting, invisible placement, reversible options for sensitive works. It cannot be moved to another piece: removal destroys it, and a work that has "lost" its chip flags itself.
Artist, title, date, exhibition history, prior ownership, certificates — cryptographically signed and written to the chip and to the Swiss-hosted record. Chip and record are inseparable; neither is valid without the other.
The buyer taps the work with any NFC smartphone. No app, no account, no reader hardware. In under two seconds: verified artist, full history, current ownership status — with your gallery's name confirming it.
Built for the art trade
Close with certainty. Sell it forward.
Due diligence in seconds, not days.
Your signature can be forged. This can't.
Founding Gallery Programme — 2026
Founding partners shape the platform, lock in preferred terms, and carry the designation permanently on every verification page their works produce.
Pricing
Every plan includes the tamper-evident chip, cryptographic authentication, unlimited verification by anyone with a phone, no app, and a permanent record.
≈ CHF 14 per artwork per year
For working artists protecting their own work.
Beyond 25 works: CHF 18 per additional tag, or upgrade any time.
"Your signature can be forged. This can't."Start protecting your work
Priced around your inventory
For galleries and dealers who want to close with confidence.
Everything in Artist, plus:
Beyond 250 works: additional tags are part of what we agree, or move to Estate.
"Your buyer taps the work and sees your name confirming it's real — five years from now, at any auction house in the world."Book a demo
For estates, foundations and authentication committees.
Everything in Gallery, plus:
Beyond 1,500 works: volume pricing, agreed with your account manager.
"Your catalogue raisonné, bonded to the artwork itself — and never out of date."Talk to us
Not sure? Start with ten works. If your clients don't notice the difference, walk away — no annual commitment in the first three months.
Questions we hear from every gallerist
No. Mounting is conservation-safe and placement is discreet — typically the stretcher bar, frame, or verso, never the surface. For sensitive or historical works we offer reversible mounting reviewed with conservators.
They can't. The chip is tamper-evident: removal destroys it electronically. And because the record notes that the work is tagged, a work missing its chip flags itself as compromised.
Yes. Retroactive tagging is the most common starting point for galleries — most partners begin by tagging existing inventory in a single session.
Nothing stops. Tag as many works as you need — additional tags beyond your yearly allowance are billed per tag (CHF 18 on Artist; on Gallery, at the rate we agree with you), or you can move up a plan at any time. Works already tagged stay verified forever, regardless of your plan.
We are building prove.art so that the answer never depends on trusting us: the domain and record archive are being placed under an independent Swiss association dedicated solely to their continuity, every owner will receive a signed, independently verifiable copy of their record, and records are timestamped in a public ledger. Ask us about the current status — we walk every partner through the continuity plan in detail.
The owner. Public verification shows authenticity, artist, and title; ownership details and history are disclosed only at the level the owner chooses.
Verification requires a connection — every tap is confirmed live against our servers, which is precisely what makes it trustworthy: the result you see is the current, authoritative record, not a cached copy that could be stale or spoofed. Any mobile or Wi-Fi connection is enough, and verification takes under two seconds.
Book a demo
Book a 20-minute demo. We'll tag a sample work live, and you'll verify it from your own phone before the call is over. Then we'll design a tagging programme around your inventory.
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