05 — Expertise
Authentication, Provenance & Valuation
Every work we place is considered on the evidence: the object, its history, and the record that accompanies it. Bring a painting to the gallery, or send photographs, and we will tell you plainly what we can establish.
Authenticity assessment
Examination of the work itself — support, ground, stretcher, signature, varnish and surface — drawing on four decades of handling South African paintings.
Authenticity certification
Where the evidence supports a conclusion, the assessment is set down in writing for the owner's records.
X-ray-supported examination
X-ray imaging can assist in examining an artwork's underlying structure, materials, alterations and construction, as one part of a broader assessment.
Provenance research
Tracing ownership, exhibition and sale history to document where a work has been and how it reached the market.
Professional valuation
Considered valuations for collectors, estates and insurers, based on the current South African market.
Private brokerage
Llewellyn Kruger International Art Brokers acts for both buyers and sellers in private transactions, and sources works on request.
Collector & estate advisory
Consultation on building, refining, insuring or dispersing a collection, including art held in deceased estates.
Beyond the surface
X-ray-supported art examination.
Deciding whether a painting is what it appears to be often requires looking past the painted surface. X-ray analysis can assist in examining an artwork's underlying structure, materials, alterations and construction as part of a broader authentication assessment — an earlier composition beneath the visible one, a repaired tear, a replaced stretcher, a passage of overpaint.
Imaging contributes evidence; it does not deliver a verdict, and it does not replace expert judgement. Where the evidence is inconclusive, we say so.
Decades of experience, supported by modern technical examination.
- Connoisseurship
- Provenance
- Physical examination
- Technical analysis
- Comparative knowledge