A work can look right, feel right, and still fail the market. That is why artwork provenance red flags deserve far more scrutiny than most buyers give them. In the upper end of the art market, weak provenance is not a minor paperwork issue. It is a pricing issue, a liquidity issue, and in some cases a litigation issue. Collectors often focus first on authorship, condition, and price. Those matter. But provenance is where many expensive mistakes hide in plain sight. A painting

A painting does not become authentic because someone confident says it is. In the upper end of the market, attribution must survive scrutiny from buyers, auction specialists, insurers, estates, and sometimes litigators. That is the real answer to the question of who can authenticate expensive artwork: not just anyone with art-historical knowledge, but the parties whose methods, documentation, and conclusions can withstand financial and legal pressure. Expensive art sits in a