Art Revisionist and Atteste both put “AI” and “art provenance” in the same sentence, which is exactly why they get confused for each other. They don’t compete. One is an investigative research service that corrects the historical record on a specific artwork; the other is a cataloguing app that helps collectors document and protect the works they already own. This page breaks down what each one actually does, so you can tell which one solves your problem.
What Art Revisionist Does
Art Revisionist is a research initiative that investigates misattributed and overlooked works of art and material culture, and corrects the historical record where the evidence supports it. The work is archival and forensic: cross-referencing foundry records, exhibition catalogs, auction documents, civil records, and contemporary correspondence to establish or challenge an attribution. An AI tool is used within that process to evaluate claims against the documentation gathered, but the investigation itself is directed and verified by human researchers, not generated automatically.
Our published case files show the method applied to real objects rather than left as theory, including the correction of the “Marcello Valsuani” attribution to the real Fonderie Valsuani founder, Carlo and Claude Valsuani, and the ongoing investigation into the Senufo Hornbill sculpture. Museums, auction houses, private collectors, and academic researchers bring us specific works whose attribution or authenticity is in question; we take on the investigation and publish a documented, sourced conclusion.
What Atteste Does
Atteste is a mobile and web platform for documenting and preserving art collections. A collector photographs a work to trigger AI-assisted identification (built on Google Gemini and Anthropic Claude), logs acquisition details and provenance notes, and the platform seals that record with SHA-256 cryptographic hashing into what it calls an append-only chain, intended to make the ownership history tamper-evident going forward. It also offers a conversational AI companion, Atelier, and inheritance/legacy tools for passing a documented collection on to heirs.
Atteste is explicit that it does not authenticate an artwork’s authenticity; it generates a tamper-proof ownership and documentation record from the point you start using it, not a verdict on whether the work is what it’s claimed to be. Pricing is tiered by user type: a free plan for up to 25 works, paid collector plans, an artist studio plan, and gallery subscriptions for inventory management at scale.
Art Revisionist vs Atteste: Head to Head
| Art Revisionist | Atteste | |
|---|---|---|
| Core purpose | Investigate and correct a specific misattribution or authenticity question | Catalogue and protect the provenance records of works you already own |
| What you get | A documented, sourced research conclusion on a specific work | A tamper-evident digital record of ownership and acquisition details |
| Does it authenticate the artwork? | Yes – that is the deliverable | No – explicitly out of scope by design |
| Role of AI | Evaluates documentation against claims, directed by human researchers | Identifies artworks from photos and powers a conversational assistant |
| Who it’s for | Museums, auction houses, collectors, and researchers with a specific attribution dispute | Collectors, artists, and galleries who want to organize and preserve records of a collection |
| Format | Bespoke research engagement, submitted for evaluation | Self-serve mobile/web app with subscription tiers |
Which One Do You Need?
If you have a specific piece whose attribution, authorship, or authenticity is in doubt, and you need a defensible answer backed by primary-source research, that’s an Art Revisionist investigation, not a cataloguing app. Atteste is built for the opposite situation: you already know what you own, and you want an organized, tamper-evident record of it for insurance, inheritance, or simply peace of mind – it isn’t designed to resolve a genuine attribution dispute.
The two are not mutually exclusive. A collector could use Atteste to catalogue an entire collection day to day, and still bring one specific, disputed piece to Art Revisionist for a formal investigation when the question is serious enough to need an evidenced answer rather than a record-keeping entry.
Have a work you’d like us to look into? Get in touch, or read our guide to how authentication and provenance research actually works first.