Hi,
Last year, I bought a framed paining I loved and it was in the window of a second hand shop ( that did have antiques and collectables as well) that was due to close down.
The painting had a small tear across one bottom corner and I had never heard of the artist.
However, once I got home,ci researched the painting and artist and he was actually a famous artist with his originals being worth on average between 3-6K. However, when I looked at it, to me it almost looks original. DH thinks it's not. And a friend with an original by the artist, thinks it's a crayon type print which was a common way of printing at that time. I keep looking at it and I'm not sure whether its original but just old and mistreated. It looks, to me, as though the paint may have soaked into the canvas .
I looked at my friend's original and it doesn't look that different....and they both have the exact same linen mount....but she has the paperwork for her's to prove it's real.
So my question is, how do I find out whether it's original? If I take it to an art dealer, will they not just say it's not worth much and try to buy it off me, and then sell it for loads if it's really original? How do I find someone reputable who I trust and who will know about that artist etc? I've tried to find out about the artist and somewhere it said that some of his originals were made as vintage prints using a technique I can't remember