What We're Building
Deep Canon is an institutional art research platform designed for collectors, dealers, and auction professionals operating below the major house level. We aggregate museum holdings, exhibition history, edition records, and publisher data into a single, searchable research environment.
Our core thesis is simple: the information needed to evaluate an artist's institutional standing has always existed — scattered across museum APIs, catalogue raisonnés, foundation archives, and auction records. Deep Canon brings it together in one place.
The Problem We Solve
At regional auction houses and estate sales, collectors face a consistent challenge: evaluating artist legitimacy under time pressure with incomplete information. Existing tools are either institutional-grade and inaccessible, or consumer-facing and superficial.
Deep Canon is built for the collector who needs to know — quickly and confidently — whether an artist is institutionally significant, what museums hold their work, and whether the object in front of them is documented and authentic.
Our Data
Deep Canon draws from a curated network of open-access institutional sources, including museum collection APIs, Getty authority records, publisher partnership data, and aggregated auction history. Our four-tier data architecture prioritizes source quality, with museum-verified and publisher-authenticated records ranked highest.
Layer 1 — Museum & Institutional Records. Open-access APIs from MoMA, the National Gallery of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian, and 15+ additional institutions.
Layer 2 — Catalogue Raisonné Facts. Factual edition data extracted under the Feist doctrine from published catalogues.
Layer 3 — Publisher-Verified Records. Direct partnerships with print publishers, foundations, and living artist estates.
Layer 4 — Aggregated Market Data. Historical auction records and public listing data.
Who We Serve
Independent Collectors. Individuals building focused collections at regional auction houses and estate sales who need institutional context without a research staff.
Regional Auction Houses. Cataloging teams that need rapid, accurate artist and edition data to produce professional consignment records.
Art Dealers & Advisors. Professionals who need documented provenance threads and institutional context for client transactions.
Current Status
Deep Canon is currently in early development. The platform you are viewing is a research prototype. We are actively building our core database infrastructure, beginning with museum holdings data across 20+ open-access institutions.
We expect to open limited beta access to qualified collectors and regional auction houses in the coming months. If you are interested in early access or a partnership inquiry, we welcome your outreach.