Artwork Provenance

[daveygh]

Working in an office block refurbishment in the early 90's, I pulled four pictures out of the skip with the main contractors permission and have held on to them ever since. Whilst clearing my loft I came across them again recently and started to look into selling them. Being Singapore art I have followed a couple of Singapore contemporary art auctions and a few of these pictures by the same artist has sold for not mega money but a couple of thousand pounds each.

I have the details of an upcoming auction and they are asking for pictures and provenance, now the pictures are no problem but what do I put for provenance??
And has anyone had dealings with selling paintings overseas?

[emeritus]

You clearly dont have provenance unless you can somehow contact the previous owners , which doesn't look possible. You would also have to declare how they came into your possession which may cause problems. An alternative may be to get an expert in the artists work to verify. But that wont come cheap. Interestingly there is a piece in todays mail along similar lines.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4190392/My-grandfather-left-2million-Van-Gogh.html

[daveygh]

Thanks emeritus, would be nice if they were worth that much it would be worth shelling out for expert opinion but sadly no where near it. would the auction house not verify if they are genuine before selling them? I have tried to find a dealer over here to have a look at them but can't find anyone.