Provenance
Provenance is a work's documented history: who made it, who bought it, where it was shown, which catalogues published it. For a buyer it confirms authenticity; for the market it is how trust is kept.
The artist forms the first links of that chain, and nobody can do it for
them: ten years on there will be no one left to recall who took the work.
Each entry belongs to a specific work in the catalogue rather than to a
separate file that later goes missing.