Everything you need to know about Maros, provenance research, and the MID system.
Maros is a location in Indonesia, home to the Maros-Pangkep caves which contain the earliest known figurative paintings in the world—dating back over 45,000 years. The name pays tribute to the origins of human artistic expression, making it a fitting namesake for a platform dedicated to art provenance.
An MID (Maros Identifier) is a permanent, globally unique identifier assigned to every artwork registered on Maros. Think of it like an ISBN for books or a VIN for vehicles—it's a universal reference that follows the artwork through every sale, exhibition, and transfer. Once assigned, an MID never changes, regardless of who owns the artwork.
Unlike books (ISBN) or vehicles (VIN), art has historically lacked a standardized identification system. This leads to confusion, fraud, and inefficiency when tracking ownership history. A MID provides a single source of truth that galleries, auction houses, collectors, and insurers can all reference, making provenance research faster and more reliable.
No! Maros is for all artworks—from museum masterpieces to works by emerging artists to family heirlooms. Every artwork has a story worth documenting, and every collector deserves to understand the history of their pieces.
When you upload a provenance document (certificate, invoice, letter, etc.), our AI-powered system analyzes the document using GPT-4 Vision. It extracts key information like names, dates, locations, and transaction details, then structures this data into your artwork's provenance timeline. You can review and verify the extracted information before it's added to your records.
Maros accepts most common document formats including PDFs, images (JPG, PNG), and scanned documents. We can process certificates of authenticity, invoices, receipts, letters, customs forms, exhibition catalogs, restoration reports, and other provenance documentation.
Our AI achieves high accuracy on clearly printed documents and provides confidence scores for each extraction. For handwritten or damaged documents, accuracy may vary. We always give you the opportunity to review and correct extracted information before it's saved. For critical documents, we recommend manual verification.
Yes! You can register artworks and manually enter provenance information even without uploading documents. Documents simply make the process faster and help verify the ownership history.
By default, your artwork records are private and visible only to you. You control whether to make any artwork publicly accessible via its MID. Even for public artworks, sensitive information like purchase prices and personal documents remain private unless you explicitly share them.
Your data is stored securely on Supabase infrastructure, which uses enterprise-grade encryption at rest and in transit. Our servers are located in secure data centers with SOC 2 Type II compliance. We never sell your data to third parties.
Yes. You own your data and can export it at any time. We provide PDF reports for individual artworks and are working on bulk export functionality. If you close your account, you can request a full data export.
No. Your documents are processed to extract provenance information for your use only. We do not use your documents, images, or extracted data to train AI models. Your data remains yours.
Every new user gets 1 free provenance report—no credit card required. Upload your documents, run the analysis, and download a full PDF report. It's the same output paying customers receive, so you can see exactly what you're getting before you buy.
During our launch period, a single provenance report costs $39. For volume users, we offer packs: 10 reports for $290 ($29 each) or 25 reports for $475 ($19 each). Credits are valid for 12 months.
Yes. We offer custom pricing for museums, galleries, auction houses, and other institutions. Contact us to discuss your needs and get a tailored quote.
A report is generated when you click 'Generate Report' on an artwork. You can upload unlimited documents and register unlimited artworks for free—credits are only consumed when generating the final provenance report.
We use industry-standard security practices including encrypted passwords, secure session management, and optional two-factor authentication. All connections are encrypted using TLS 1.3.
We're committed to long-term operation, but we also plan for contingencies. If Maros were ever to cease operations, we would provide advance notice and ensure all users can export their complete data. MIDs would remain valid references in any exported records.