A catalog raisonné is used for what purposes in attribution and due diligence?

• A. A comprehensive scholarly listing used to verify attribution, provenance, and flag misattributions.
• B. An informal list of works with estimated values.
• C. A donor registry.
• D. A log of shipping records.

Answer: (A)

A catalog raisonné is a comprehensive, scholarly record of an artist’s entire body of work, compiled with evidence from archives, catalogs, provenance, and exhibition history. This makes it the go-to reference for attribution and due diligence because it provides authoritative information on whether a work is truly by the artist, traces its ownership and exhibition history, and notes any questions or misattributions surfaced by research. In practice, buyers, sellers, lenders, and insurers rely on it to confirm authenticity and assess risk, using its provenance and scholarly notes as the basis for decisions. It isn’t simply a price list or a registry of donors or a shipping log, so the primary value lies in verification of authorship and the historical record surrounding each work.