Hephaestus authenticates art works: affordably, at scale and transparently. Art market participants are some of the world’s wealthiest and most sophisticated investors, yet the market’s evidentiary standards and lack of transparency are the same as they were years ago.

Along with attracting greater economic considerations for paintings, the art market is increasingly attracting greater scrutiny. On Oct 30, 2020 the US Treasury Department issued warnings citing the “lack of transparency and high-level of anonymity in art market transactions.” 
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By combining connoisseurship with twenty-first century forensics, Hephaestus has developed a set of tools which provide the world’s highest evidentiary standards in the art authentication process.  

Collectors, museums, investors, insurers and law enforcement agencies have commented that Hephaestus' suite of products:

• Increases the predictability of art authentication outcomes by providing form, structure and transparency to the scientific analysis of artworks;
• Levels the playing field for authentication by making the process affordable, portable and widely available;
  
• Minimises the impact of irrational and baseless opinions which can damage the the value of a painting; and
  
• Helps insulate experts from claims of liability for their conclusions by providing a standardised methodology which is inherently credible, even when experts draw diametrically different opinions about the same painting.
  

A note to connoisseurs

Hephaestus embraces connoisseurs; they are an integral part of the company’s unique multi-disciplinary authentication process. Our analytical tools effectively extend the intuitive power of the connoisseur, by providing an objective component to underpin subjective judgements. In 1939 the noted art historian Max Friedlander wrote, ‘the way in which an intuitive verdict is reached can, from the nature of things, only be described inadequately’. Now, with the use of scientific language and technology, appraisals such as “something doesn’t look quite right” or “I have a hunch the artist did not paint those hands” can be substantiated.
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In much the same way that sports referees are aided in their decisions by technologies such as the Hawk-Eye camera system, we support connoisseurs’ process of analysis with the world’s most trusted set of technological tools, significantly reducing the risk of an incorrect appraisal. The rigorous application of the scientific method guided by the principles of connoisseurship distinguishes Hephaestus from other firms and allows us to provide the much sought-after evidentiary standards and legal language that the twenty-first century art market requires.