(1) When an art dealer, in selling or changing a work of art, furnishes to a buyer of such work who is not an art dealer a written instrument which, in describing the work, identifies it with any authorship, the description shall be presumed to be part of the basis of the transaction and shall create an express warranty of the authenticity of the authorship as of the date of the sale or exchange. The warranty shall not be negated or limited because the art dealer in the written instrument did not use formal words such as “warrant” or “guarantee,” because the art dealer did not have a specific intention or authorization to make the warranty, or because any statement relevant to authorship is, reports to be, or is capable of being, merely the art dealer’s opinion.

(2) In construing the degree of authenticity of authorship warranted, due regard shall be given to the terminology used in describing the authorship and the meaning accorded to such terminology by the customs and usage of the trade at the time and in the locality where the sale or exchange took place. A written instrument delivered pursuant to a sale which took place in this state which, in describing the work, states, for example:

(a) That the work is by a named author or has a named authorship without any other limiting words: means unequivocally that the work is by the named author or has the named authorship.

(b) That the work is attributed to a named author: means a work of the period of the author, attributed to her or him, but not with certainty by her or him.

(c) That the work is of a school of a named author: means a work of the period of the author, by a pupil or close follower of the author but not by the author.

(d) That the rare map, rare print, sculpture, drawing, or other work of art is of the authorship or from the period or date attributed to the work of art.

History.—s. 4, ch. 86-118; s. 745, ch. 97-102.