Art Liven Art & Antiques · Cologne
Services

Appraisal

Age, condition, authenticity, and value — read, examined, and documented before any work begins.

Die Rückseite eines Tafelbildes wird geprüft
Before Any Work Begins

The object as a document

Every old piece is a document — one only has to be able to read it. Wood and grain, paint layer and patina, joints, mounts, and marks: they all report on where a piece comes from, what it has been through, and what has been done to it. In the atelier, this reading comes before everything else.

Age, condition, authenticity, and value are assessed before a single tool is picked up. Only what has been understood can be responsibly restored — or responsibly bought.

Science in the Workshop

Methods that see deeper

Where the eye reaches its limits, the examination continues — with the methods of conservation science, carried out with the sobriety of a Meisterbetrieb:

  • ✦  Macro- and microscopic wood identification
  • ✦  Paint-layer examinations
  • ✦  Pigment and binding-medium analyses
  • ✦  UV-light examinations
  • ✦  Scientific documentation

Each finding is recorded — so that the judgment does not rest on impressions, but on evidence.

Marketerie mit Burgmotiv, Furnier und Holzarten im Detail
“Under examination, an object may keep its secrets for a while — but it cannot lie.”
Workshop wisdom
Three Ways of Looking

What the object reveals

Raking light across the surface, the honest back of a panel, a signature under magnification — three views that begin every examination.

Krakelee einer Gemäldeoberfläche im Streiflicht

Raking light

The craquelure tells the age
Rückseite eines Gemäldes bei der Prüfung

The honest back

A panel’s verso never lies
Gravierte Signaturen unter der Lupe

Signatures

Incised marks, read and verified
What You Receive

Findings you can hold in your hands

An examination ends not with an opinion, but with a document.

The Atelier

More services

Marketerie mit Burgmotiv

Restoration

Furniture, polychromy, surfaces
Genregemälde in gerahmter Fassung

Buying & Selling

Selected pieces, honestly assessed
Vergoldetes Schlüsselschild an dunklem Holz

Gilding

Gold leaf in the old manner
An Appointment

Bring the question — the object answers

Whether an inherited piece, an intended purchase, or a work awaiting restoration: arrange an appointment at Wittgensteinstraße 13 — by telephone at 0221 430 13 95 or by e-mail.

Arrange an appointment