How Scoring Works

Art has never had a simple, trustworthy way to answer a basic question: how well documented is this — really? Ars Accordia provides one, because the answer matters most at the moments that test a collection: inheritance, insurance renewal, a sale, a division, a loan.

It works at two levels. Every work we document receives an Artwork Passport with a Passport Score from 0 to 100 — a measure of how complete its record is, including how fully it is cross-referenced to public authority records. A whole collection then receives an Ars Accordia Score, which is simply the sum of its works' passport scores, read alongside the average standard of those records and the number of works documented.

One thing to be clear about from the start: this is a measure of how complete and well-anchored the record is — how thoroughly the work is documented and cross-referenced. It is not a judgement of a work's authenticity, and not an estimate of its monetary value. Those belong to specialists of a different kind, and they form no part of the score.

Each documented work earns a score out of 100 that measures one thing: how complete the record is. Completeness is made of four parts of the passport.

Every passport shows this breakdown in full — each section, what it contributes, and what is still missing — so the number is never a black box, and the gaps double as the to-do list for raising it.

A collection's score is built directly from its works. It is the sum of its passport scores — an open figure with no ceiling, which climbs as more of the collection is documented and as existing records are strengthened. Three figures are always read together:

The average standard is what keeps the score honest. Because the Ars Accordia Score is a sum, a large collection of average records could out-total a small collection of immaculate ones. The average standard corrects for that: a small, perfectly documented collection reads just as high on standard as a large one. The score tells you how much documentation exists; the standard tells you how good it is; the count tells you how many works it covers.

Why not a simple percentage? A percentage would need a denominator — the exact total number of works a collection contains. For most collections that number is genuinely unknowable: few museums or private owners can enumerate, with confidence, every work they hold. A percentage built on a guessed total is itself a guess. An open figure, read with the standard of the records beside it, is the more honest measure — and it can never be inflated by quietly leaving works out.

The score measures the record, and only the record. Three things sit firmly outside it, by design.

This boundary is not timidity — it is the source of the score's neutrality. We take no view on what a work is worth, whether it is authentic, or how one source compares with another; our only interest is in the completeness of its record. That is exactly what lets the score be trusted.

• It is computed, never assigned. Every score is calculated from the record itself. No one at Ars Accordia hand-sets a score, and no fee changes one.
• It is earned, never inferred. A collection is scored only once its works have actually been documented and assessed. We never publish a score for a collection we were not engaged to assess.
• The working is always visible. Each passport shows precisely how its score is built, line by line. This page shows the method. Nothing is hidden.
• The method is the same for everyone. The same rules apply to every work and every collection, published in full and unchanged from one client to the next.