Although there are many databases of auction results, there are none which provide scans of the complete catalogue including the essay, provenance, exhibition history, and publications. This is increasingly important to valuation, title and prevention of fraud.
At Catalogstar we have scanned 40,000 complete catalogues of the major houses and these will be made available later this month. They are searchable by artist, date of sale etc, but not yet fully digitised/edited to be searchable by all the obvious criteria of ownership, title, exhibition, provenance etc. That will be phase 2 into 2022.
We have brought forward the core elements for immediate access to compensate for Covid-19 restrictions on office and library access.
Julian Radcliffe
Chairman, Catalogstar
The Art Loss Register, London EC1N
