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How to Read a Park West Certificate of Authenticity

A line-by-line guide to the certificate that comes with every Park West purchase: the registration number, the medium, the edition breakdown, and what the certificate leaves out.

By Your Art Vault · · 4 min read

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Edition of 200 is really 547
Where is your edition number?

Every Park West purchase comes with a Certificate of Authenticity. Most collectors glance at it once, slide it into a folder or the back of the frame, and never read it again. That’s a shame, because this one page does three jobs. It identifies your piece, it describes exactly what you own, and it’s the document your insurer, a buyer or your family will ask for first.

Below is a real certificate from our own collection: Mark Kostabi’s The Wright Spirit, a sculptograph from 2021. We’ve hidden the last digits of the registration number and nothing else. The numbers on the image match the sections that follow.

Park West Certificate of Authenticity for Mark Kostabi, The Wright Spirit, with six numbered parts marked
A Park West Certificate of Authenticity from our own collection. The last four digits of the registration number are hidden.

The six parts of the certificate

  1. The guarantee. “According to the terms of the guarantee on the verso of this certificate, we guarantee the authorship of the following work of art.” Verso means the back of the page, and that’s where the conditions of the guarantee are printed. When you scan or photograph a certificate, do both sides. A scan of the front alone leaves out the terms.

What the guarantee covers. The terms printed on the back of our Park West invoices put it plainly. The guarantee covers authorship, which is the first line of the description: the artist. If that turns out to be substantially wrong, the original purchaser can return the piece within one year of the invoice date for a refund. The guarantee is not transferable to later owners. It doesn’t extend to the title, size, condition or the supplemental details below the first line.

  1. The registration number. This is the most important line on the page. Park West puts it on the certificate, the appraisal and the invoice, and it’s how one piece is tied to all of its paperwork. In our collection, every editioned piece has its own number after the dot. Unique works, such as original paintings, end in .0000. More on that below.
  2. Artist, title, year and size. The artist’s surname comes first (“Kostabi, Mark”), then the title, the year and the dimensions in inches. If the title on your invoice is slightly different, the registration number settles which piece it is.
  3. Medium and signature. Here it says “Sculptograph (three dimensional multimedia construction) with archival UV ink. Hand-signed by the artist.” This line tells you what the object physically is, and whether the artist signed it by hand. Read it word for word. “Hand-signed by the artist”, “hand-signed in pigment” and other wordings say different things, and buyers and appraisers notice the difference.
  4. The edition. For prints and other multiples, this paragraph says how many exist. It’s the most misunderstood part of the certificate, so it gets its own section below.
  5. Signature and seal. The certificate is signed by Park West’s Gallery Director on behalf of the gallery and carries the Park West seal. Keep the original. A photocopy is fine for your records, but the original is what a buyer will want to see.

How to read the edition line

The certificate above says the piece is “from the Arabic numbered edition of 200 examples”. It’s natural to assume that means 200 exist. Keep reading. The same sentence goes on to list every other version printed alongside the main edition:

VersionWhat it meansNumber
Arabic numbered editionThe main edition, numbered 1/200, 2/200 and so on.200
Roman numbered proofsA parallel edition numbered in Roman numerals (I/CC, II/CC…).200
Hors commerce (HC)“Not for trade”: copies originally set aside for exhibition or sample use.90
European artist proofs (EA)Artist proofs, European designation.27
Artist proofs (AP)Proofs traditionally reserved for the artist.27
Bon à tirer (BAT)“Good to print”: the reference proof the printer matched.3
Total impressions547

So “an edition of 200” is 547 impressions in total. That doesn’t make the piece any less yours or any less signed. It does matter when you compare prices, because the more impressions of a title exist, the more often it changes hands.

What the certificate leaves out: your own impression number, for example 112/200 or AP 4/27. The certificate describes the edition, not your copy. The number is usually pencilled on the artwork itself, near the signature. Write it down and photograph it, because it won’t be anywhere else in your paperwork.

A unique work reads differently

Here is the wording on another certificate from our collection, for an original Kostabi painting on paper:

Certificate wording for a unique Mark Kostabi painting on paper, Moonlight Selfie, registration number ending .0000
Unique works say so in plain words, and in our collection their registration numbers end in .0000.

Three things change. There is no edition paragraph. The medium line says where the signature is (“hand-signed in pigment lower right”) and that the back is signed, dated and titled too. And the description ends with “A unique work.” If you own an original, those words are worth protecting: keep the certificate flat, dry and out of direct sun.

What the certificate does not tell you

  • What you paid. That’s on your invoice.
  • What it’s worth. That’s on the appraisal, which is a separate document. See Park West Appraisals Explained.
  • Framing. Frame details are normally on the invoice, not the certificate.
  • Your impression number, as described above.

Five habits that save trouble later

  1. Scan both sides of every certificate as soon as it arrives.
  2. Store the originals flat in an archival sleeve or folder, not loose in the back of a frame where heat and moisture collect.
  3. Match each certificate to its appraisal and invoice using the registration number, and keep them together.
  4. Photograph the impression number and signature on the artwork itself.
  5. Check each new certificate against your invoice before you file it. Title, artist and registration number should agree. If they don’t, contact Park West while the purchase is recent.

Those five habits take about ten minutes per piece. With a large collection it adds up, and that’s why we built Park West Collectors.

Your Art Vault is an independent platform operated by Kerja Group LLC, written by collectors for collectors. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Park West Gallery. Park West documents shown are from our own collection, with personal details removed, and are reproduced for explanation only. This article is general information, not legal, tax or insurance advice.

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