Abstract
Éric Turquin explains his career path, showing how one becomes an expert, the importance of Bruno de Bayser, one of the leading drawing experts in Paris, his training with English experts, and the Hôtel Drouot, a place for sales and exhibitions, and offering the possibility of touching works (essential for sculpture, for example).
Expertise requires a cross-fertilization of ideas and skills : comparing catalogs and photographs, capitalizing on the visual knowledge acquired through years of research and curiosity, investigating the artists' families and, last but not least, intuition, are all part of this " l'œil croisé " technique, in which the various experts pool their insights.
Expertise requires the use of every possible technique : authentication may require proof that the same plate links two paintings ; in some cases, radio analysis may be used to determine whether an original or a reproduction is involved.
The discoverer is usually the auctioneer : it is thanks to him that the works " arrive " to the expert. But of the thousands of paintings appraised in a year, only a handful will ever lead to a record sale.
