The article focuses on a specific type of artistic collaboration, i.e. commissiong, where an artist assigns the production of the work of art to skilled craftsmen or unskilled workers. The aim of the article is twofold: On the one hand, I want to trace the creative origins of commissioned works of art. On the other hand, I want to question the presumed irrelevance of commissioning (evidenced by the practices of the artworld) with regards to the artistic appreciation of its products. Drawing on facts about the process of artistic creation in general and the artistic character of contemporary commissioned works in particular, I will argue that (a) contemporary commissioned artworks are often collectively created albeit singularly authored, and (b) that, regardless of how authorship and creatorship are to be distributed in each case, their collaborative mode of production directly affects their artistic identity and so, in contrast to current practice, has to be made explicit in exhibition of the works so as to allow their proper appreciation.