Provenance from Day One

In the AI era, authorship matters more than ever.

For creators and collectors alike, the value of a work increasingly depends not only on the finished piece, but on confidence in where it came from, who made it, and the story behind its creation. Until now, provenance has too often been reconstructed after the fact — pieced together during a sale, an auction, or an estate review, sometimes years after a work was created.

Otterkin and CertifyIP are changing that.

The two companies have formed a partnership to bring trusted creative provenance into the commissioned art market from the very beginning of the creative process. Every work commissioned through Otterkin will now include a timestamped, legally credible record of authorship and creation, established as the work evolves.

This creates a verifiable provenance trail that stays with the work over time, alongside its certificate of authenticity, through private collections, resale, auction, and inheritance. The provenance is no longer an afterthought. It becomes part of the work itself.

Why this matters now

As AI reshapes the creative landscape, questions of authorship, originality, and trust are becoming more urgent across the arts. For many creative works, provenance is not contained in a single finished image or object. It exists in the process including the drafts, decisions, iterations, and development that shape the final outcome.

Documenting that process is increasingly important: · for artists establishing trusted authorship · for collectors seeking confidence in authenticity · for the wider art market navigating a new era of creative transparency

This partnership reflects a broader shift toward creative provenance as a core part of cultural and commercial value.

What this means in practice

For artists, it means having a durable and credible record of authorship connected to their work from the moment it is created. For collectors, it offers greater confidence in authenticity and provenance over the lifetime of a piece.

For the secondary market, it helps reduce uncertainty around attribution and ownership by establishing provenance at the point of origin rather than reconstructing it later.

Otterkin operates at the intersection of contemporary art and luxury commissioning, connecting collectors with living artists internationally. Through this partnership, works commissioned via the platform now enter the world with trusted provenance already established.

Both companies are part of the UK Government’s CreaTech industrial strategy, recognising the growing importance of infrastructure that supports trust, authorship, and value within the creative economy.

www.otterkin.art | www.certifyip.com