Certificates of authenticity for sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional, so a single photograph can only ever capture one view. Attesian certifies sculpture with a signed certificate and an append-only provenance record, while being candid that image fingerprinting does less work here than it does for a painting.
Register a sculpture and it receives its genesis event and certificate. Its authenticity and history rest primarily on the registry record and on attestation by the parties involved.
The genesis event fixes authorship; casts and editions are each recorded as their own registry items.
Provenance — foundry, exhibitions, owners — is appended over time and never rewritten.
Attestation by involved parties carries more of the weight than the image, and the trust tier says so.
How image fingerprinting applies
A perceptual image fingerprint of a sculpture reflects a single photographed angle, so it degrades as a uniqueness check for three-dimensional work. Attesian leans on the registry constraint and two-sided attestation for identity here, rather than overselling the image.
Questions
- How is a bronze edition handled?
- Each cast is its own item in the registry with its own certificate and provenance. Identity comes from the record and from attestation, not from a photograph that every cast would share.