Summary. Do the provenance work and keep the record of it, get express warranties in writing, read the auction terms before bidding, and handle moral rights before installation.

For the doctrine — void title, demand and refusal, laches, looted art, moral rights, cultural property — see Art Law and Cultural Property. This guide is what to do.

Three sentences worth memorizing:

  1. A thief passes no title, and neither does anyone after them — so the diligence you do and document is what protects you.
  2. Selling the physical work does not transfer the copyright.
  3. Moral rights questions must be resolved before installation, not before demolition.

Part One: Buying

Before you commit

1. Get the provenance in writing, as far back as it goes, with names, places, and dates for each transfer.

Then read it for gaps, especially:

  • 1933–1945 anywhere in Europe. A gap here requires resolution, not an explanation.
  • Pre-1970 documentation for antiquities, or a lawful export permit after that date.
  • Any long period of "private collection," which is sometimes privacy and sometimes the absence of a name.

Treat these phrases as stop signs: "from an old European collection" · "acquired in the 1970s" without documents · "by descent" with no probate record · "legally exported" without the permit · a provenance beginning with the current dealer.

2. Search the databases and keep the results. The stolen art registries and looted art databases are searchable, and the printed search result with a date on it is evidence of your diligence — which is what defeats a claim years later.

3. Commission a condition report, and for a significant work, technical analysis. Pigment and support analysis costs a fraction of the price and catches what connoisseurship misses.

4. Verify export and import legality, and obtain the documentation. An object seized at the border is a total loss, and good faith is not a defense to forfeiture.

5. Ask who else has an interest. Is the work consigned, subject to a lien, jointly owned, part of an estate, or the subject of a pending claim?

The bill of sale

Insist on express written warranties. Whatever the dealer's reputation, the document is what you will have.

  • Title — the seller owns the work free of liens, claims, and encumbrances, and has full authority to sell.
  • Authenticity — the work is by the named artist, with the attribution stated exactly, and a stated remedy if it is not.
  • Provenance — the chain as represented is accurate to the seller's knowledge, with disclosure of any gap.
  • Condition and restoration — full disclosure of restoration, overpainting, relining, replaced parts, and prior damage.
  • Import and export — the work was lawfully exported and imported, with documents delivered.
  • Remedy and period — rescission and refund, and a period long enough to be useful. A ninety-day warranty on an Old Master is not a warranty.

Also address: who bears risk of loss and when it passes; who pays for shipping and insurance; sales and use tax; and whether the seller is conveying any copyright interest (usually not — say so either way).

At auction

The auction house works for the seller. Read the conditions of sale before bidding; they are the contract.

What to look for:

  • The estimate is not a warranty, and the reserve is confidential — the house may bid on the seller's behalf up to it.
  • The limited authenticity warranty: what it covers (usually the artist's name as printed in the heading, not qualified attributions like "attributed to," "studio of," or "circle of"), how long it lasts, that it typically runs only to the original buyer, and that the remedy is generally rescission limited to the purchase price.
  • "As is" condition terms — the condition report is a courtesy opinion, not a warranty.
  • The buyer's premium, and any additional fees, taxes, and royalties.
  • Whether the house has a financial interest — a guarantee to the seller or an irrevocable third-party bid — and how that is disclosed.

Before bidding: inspect in person or send a specialist; request a condition report and ask specific questions in writing; ask about the provenance gaps; and set a maximum including the premium and taxes, because the number on the paddle is not the number you pay.

Part Two: Selling and consigning

If you are an artist consigning to a gallery

Get a written consignment agreement. Most states' artist-dealer consignment statutes make the dealer a trustee of the work and of the proceeds and protect them from the dealer's creditors — but the protections work far better with a signed agreement and a dated inventory.

The agreement must state: the works, individually identified with images; the term; the minimum price and any discount authority; the commission; payment timing after sale (30 days is common; longer is a warning); insurance, its amount, and who is named; risk of loss in transit, storage, and display; transportation responsibility; reproduction rights (a license to promote, not a transfer); the return of unsold works; and that proceeds are held in trust and will not be commingled.

Then keep your own records: the signed agreement, the dated inventory with images, and delivery receipts. When a gallery closes, the artist with those three documents recovers the work.

If you are selling privately

Disclose condition and restoration. Nondisclosure is the seed of most later disputes, and disclosure is cheap.

Provide the provenance you have, honestly, including the gaps. A seller who papers over a gap converts a title problem into a fraud problem.

Negotiate the warranty period deliberately. A buyer will ask for an open-ended authenticity warranty; a seller will want a limit. A defined period with a defined remedy is better for both than silence.

Consider a title insurance product for high-value works, which now exists.

Part Three: Artists, commissions, and buildings

For the artist

Copyright stays with you unless the work is made for hire or you assign it in a signed writing. Say so in the bill of sale so the buyer does not assume otherwise.

Do not sign a moral rights waiver casually. A waiver must be in a signed writing that specifically identifies the work and the uses to which it applies. Read what is being waived — relocation, alteration, removal, destruction — and price it.

For commissioned and site-specific work, address these in the agreement, before installation:

  • Whether the work can be removed without destruction, and who decides;
  • Whether the client may relocate, alter, or remove it, and on what notice;
  • Whether you waive any rights, and for which specific uses;
  • Maintenance and conservation responsibility, and who approves treatment;
  • What happens if the building is sold, renovated, or demolished;
  • Attribution — how you are credited, and where.

Keep an inventory — title, date, medium, dimensions, edition, images, exhibition history, disposition. It becomes the record the market relies on, and its absence is why many artists' works become unsalable after death.

For editions, comply with the state print and multiples disclosure statutes: edition size, prior editions, whether the plate was destroyed, and whether the artist signed. Failure to disclose is common and avoidable.

For a building owner or developer

Before renovating or demolishing, ask two questions:

Is there a work of visual art on the property, and is it of "recognized stature"? Evidence includes critical review, exhibition, publication, awards, and expert opinion. Courts have found stature in works far less famous than owners assume.

Can the work be removed without destruction or modification?

  • If not: the artist's rights do not apply only if the artist signed a written consent before installation. If there is no such writing, you are exposed.
  • If so: you must make a diligent, good faith attempt to notify the artist in writing, and the artist has 90 days to remove it at their expense or pay for removal.

The sequence to follow:

  1. Inventory every work on the property.
  2. Research the artists and the works' reception.
  3. Search the file for any prior consent or waiver.
  4. Send the statutory notice and document the diligent search for the artist.
  5. Wait the 90 days.
  6. Where stature is likely and removal impossible, negotiate a waiver before touching anything.

Statutory damages accrue per work. Destroying several murals without notice has produced very large judgments.

Part Four: Protecting what you own

Insure properly. Use an agreed value fine art policy, not a homeowner's rider, for anything significant. Confirm coverage for transit and exhibition, and check whether the policy pays loss in value after damage as well as restoration cost — many do not.

Ship professionally. Fine art shippers, custom crates, climate control, and condition reports signed at every handoff. In a dispute about when damage occurred, those reports are the entire case.

Read the storage receipt. Warehouse terms often limit liability to a nominal amount per item or per pound. Insure independently.

Get a written treatment proposal before any conservation, specifying what will be done, what is reversible, and what documentation will be produced. Approve changes before they happen.

Maintain an inventory, off-site, with images, dimensions, condition reports, provenance, purchase records, and appraisals. It is what an insurer needs after a loss, what an heir needs at death, and what almost nobody has.

Part Five: When something goes wrong

You learn the work may be stolen

Do not sell it, move it abroad, or ignore it.

  1. Preserve everything about the acquisition — the invoice, the correspondence, the provenance provided, the diligence you did, and the databases you searched.
  2. Get counsel before responding to a demand.
  3. Understand the timing doctrines. In New York, the claim accrues on demand and refusal; elsewhere, generally on discovery with reasonable diligence. Laches — unreasonable delay causing prejudice — may bar the claim in either system, and your acquisition records are the prejudice showing.
  4. Consider negotiated resolution. Return, negotiated purchase, shared arrangements, and restitution with a loan back all occur regularly and cost far less than litigation.

You are the claimant

  1. Demand in writing, immediately and specifically, identifying the work, the loss, and your interest.
  2. Document the diligence that preceded the demand — every search, inquiry, and registry filing over the years. Diligence defeats laches.
  3. Register the loss with law enforcement and the stolen art registries; the trade searches them.
  4. Check whether a specialized statute applies — the federal provision for works lost between 1933 and 1945 gives six years from actual discovery.
  5. If the holder is a foreign institution, get advice on sovereign immunity and — critically — on choice of law, because a foreign rule protecting good faith possessors can defeat a claim American law would sustain.

The work turns out to be a forgery

  1. Find the warranty — in the bill of sale, or the auction conditions — and note its scope, duration, and who may invoke it.
  2. Get supporting expert opinions, which auction warranties typically require.
  3. Evaluate the theories: breach of warranty · fraud if the seller knew · mutual mistake supporting rescission · negligent misrepresentation.
  4. Check the limitations period and any discovery rule.
  5. Do not alter or "correct" the work.
  6. Consider its residual value as a period copy or a work by a follower, which is frequently substantial.

Part Six: Collections and estates

A collection is an unusual estate asset: illiquid, hard to value, expensive to hold, and emotionally loaded.

Plan for four things:

  1. Valuation — qualified appraisals, updated periodically, and an understanding that estate tax valuation and insurance valuation are different exercises.
  2. Liquidity — estate tax on a large collection can force a sale at the worst possible time. Plan the source of payment.
  3. Disposition — to heirs (who may not want it), to institutions (which may not accept it), or to sale. Ask the institution before providing for a gift in a will; unwanted gifts are declined more often than families expect.
  4. Charitable structuring — a qualified appraisal is required for a deduction, related use affects its size, and partial-interest gifts must meet statutory requirements. See Nonprofit Formation and Tax-Exempt Status Under Section 501(c)(3).

For an artist's estate, add: who authenticates; who controls reproduction and licensing; whether a foundation makes sense; and how the inventory is released to market over time so it is not dumped. See Probate and Estate Administration.

Six transactions, worked through

The first serious purchase

A collector is buying a $180,000 painting from a well-regarded gallery. The dealer is charming and the paperwork is a one-page invoice.

The invoice is the problem. Not the dealer, not the painting — the paperwork. When something goes wrong in five years, that invoice is the entire contract.

What to insist on, without apology: express warranties of title and authenticity, with the attribution stated exactly as the dealer describes it; a provenance representation; disclosure of restoration; a remedy — rescission and refund — and a period long enough to be useful. Ninety days is not a warranty on a painting purportedly two hundred years old.

And do the work before signing: written provenance with dates and names, dated database search results, a condition report, and — at this value — pigment analysis. The cost is a small fraction of the price and it is also the record that protects you if a claim arrives in 2045.

A note on tone. Collectors worry that asking for warranties signals distrust. Reputable dealers give them routinely; the ones who resist are telling you something. Ask pleasantly and in writing.

The auction lot with a great story

A lot is described as "Property of a European Private Collection," estimated at $60,000–$80,000, with a condition report describing "minor restoration."

Read the conditions of sale first. The estimate is not a warranty; the reserve is confidential; the house may bid up to it on the seller's behalf; the condition report is a courtesy opinion, not a warranty; the authenticity warranty covers the heading attribution only — not "attributed to" or "circle of" — and typically runs for a limited period, to the original buyer only, with rescission limited to the purchase price.

Then ask specific written questions before the sale: what does "minor restoration" mean in extent and location; what is the provenance in full, with names; has the work been offered before and, if so, when and with what result; and does the house or a third party have a financial interest in the lot.

Inspect in person or send a specialist. A condition report is not a substitute for ultraviolet examination by someone who does this daily.

And set a maximum including the buyer's premium, taxes, and shipping. The hammer price is not the price.

The gallery relationship that starts with a handshake

An emerging artist is offered representation. The gallery proposes taking twelve works and "sorting the paperwork later."

Nothing about that is acceptable, and everything about it is normal.

What to sign before delivering anything: a written consignment agreement identifying each work with images and dimensions; the term; the minimum price and discount authority; the commission; payment within a stated number of days of the gallery being paid; insurance in a stated amount with the artist named or with proof of coverage; risk of loss allocated for transit, storage, and display; a license to reproduce for promotion only, not a transfer; and the express statement that works and proceeds are held in trust and will not be commingled.

And the artist's own file: the signed agreement, a dated inventory with images, and delivery receipts signed by the gallery.

Why this matters more than it seems. When a gallery fails — and galleries fail — the artist with those three documents recovers the works under the consignment statute's trust provisions. The artist with a friendly email joins the creditors' queue.

The commission for a lobby

A developer commissions a large sculptural installation for a building lobby. The artist is delighted. Nobody discusses what happens in fifteen years.

Both sides should want the same clauses, and the negotiation is easier before installation than after.

Address: whether the work can be removed without destruction, and who determines that; whether the client may relocate it and on what notice; whether the client may alter it (lighting, surroundings, signage — all of which can be integrity issues); whether the artist waives any rights and for exactly which uses, in a writing identifying the work; maintenance and conservation, who pays, and who approves treatment; attribution, and where the credit appears; what happens if the building is sold, renovated, or demolished; and — for the artist — retention of copyright and any license granted for images of the work.

For the developer, the point is certainty. A signed consent before installation, where the work cannot be removed without destruction, resolves the largest single risk. For the artist, the point is that the waiver is a term with a price, and giving it away for nothing is a choice, not a formality.

The estate with forty paintings and no records

An executor finds a house full of art, no inventory, no purchase records, and heirs with different intentions.

The sequence:

  1. Secure and insure immediately. An unattended house full of art is a claim waiting to happen, and homeowners coverage may not respond.
  2. Photograph and inventory everything — title if known, medium, dimensions, signatures, labels, and the backs, which frequently carry gallery and exhibition labels that establish provenance.
  3. Obtain qualified appraisals for estate tax purposes; note that estate tax valuation and insurance valuation are different exercises.
  4. Research provenance before selling anything. A work with a gap in the 1930s and 1940s should not be sold until that is resolved.
  5. Plan the liquidity. Estate tax on a collection can force a sale at the worst moment.
  6. Ask institutions before providing for a gift. Unwanted gifts are declined more often than families expect, and a will directing a gift no institution will accept creates a problem.
  7. Address the heirs' differing intentions — one wants to keep, one wants cash — through a buyout, a sale of part, or a division, agreed before the market is engaged.

See Administering an Estate.

The bronze offered at a fair

A dealer at an art fair offers an antiquity with an attractive price and a vague history.

The price is attractive because the object is unsalable to a careful buyer, and that is the entire explanation.

The exposure is not merely civil. If the source country's patrimony law vested ownership of undiscovered antiquities in the state before the object left the ground, it is stolen property, its transport is a federal offense, it is subject to seizure and forfeiture, and no chain of good faith purchases cures it.

What documented diligence would require: provenance predating the relevant patrimony law or the applicable cutoff; export permits from the source country; import documentation; publication or exhibition history; database searches; and a written warranty with indemnity from a solvent seller.

And the resale test, which is the useful heuristic: ask whether a major auction house or museum would accept this object with this documentation. If the answer is no, that is the object's real market, and the discount is not a bargain.

Doing provenance research yourself

Most collectors assume provenance research requires an institution. Much of it does not, and an afternoon of work catches most problems.

Start with the object. Photograph the back and edges. Labels, stencils, chalk marks, customs stamps, exhibition stickers, gallery labels, inventory numbers, and old frame hardware are the primary evidence, and they are frequently more reliable than the paperwork.

Then search, and save every result with the date:

  • The stolen art registries, which the trade searches in the ordinary course.
  • Looted art databases covering the 1933–1945 period, including national and institutional project databases.
  • Auction records, which are searchable back into the nineteenth century and which frequently reveal a sale the seller did not mention.
  • Catalogue raisonné entries, where one exists — the entry itself is often a provenance summary.
  • Exhibition catalogues, which list lenders and thus owners at a date.
  • Institutional archives, including dealer stockbooks that have been deposited with libraries and museums.
  • Wartime and postwar restitution records, many of which are digitized and searchable by object and by claimant name.
  • Probate and inventory records, where a "by descent" claim is made.

Then read the chain critically:

  • Does each transfer have a source, or is it an assertion?
  • Are there dates and places, or only names?
  • Do the labels on the back match the claimed chain?
  • Is there a period where the work simply disappears?

When you find a gap, ask the seller directly and in writing, and keep the answer. A seller who cannot or will not explain a wartime gap has given you the information you needed.

When to escalate to a professional researcher: high value; any wartime European connection; any archaeological or ethnographic material; any object where the seller's story does not match the physical evidence; and any acquisition intended for eventual donation to an institution, which will conduct its own research and decline what does not survive it.

And keep the whole file. The search results, the correspondence, the labels photographed, the researcher's report. That file is what converts you from a possessor into a good faith purchaser who did what a reasonable person would do — which is the difference that decides cases decades later.

Lending, exhibiting, and moving work

Loans are where collectors and institutions create risk without noticing, because the paperwork is treated as a formality.

The loan agreement should state:

  • The works, individually, with images, dimensions, and a condition report attached and agreed at the outset.
  • The period, and what happens if the exhibition travels.
  • Insurance — who insures, for how much, on what basis (agreed value is best), and nail to nail, meaning from the moment the work leaves the lender's wall until it returns to it.
  • Risk of loss at each stage, and whether the borrower's insurance or a government indemnity program responds.
  • Packing and shipping — who selects the shipper, what standard of crating, and whether a courier accompanies the work.
  • Installation and environment — light levels, temperature, humidity, and security.
  • Photography and reproduction — what the borrower may do with images, for how long, and in what contexts. This is a copyright question, not a courtesy, and the lender may not own the copyright.
  • Credit line, exactly as the lender wants it.
  • Conservation — no treatment without written permission, and immediate notice of any damage.
  • Return — the date, the destination, and a condition report on return, signed.

For international loans, add the question of immunity from seizure, which prevents a work lent for temporary exhibition from being attached in a claim. Institutions borrowing from abroad routinely obtain it, and lenders should confirm it is in place before shipping.

Condition reports are the whole ballgame in a damage dispute. Signed at departure, at arrival, at installation, at deinstallation, and at return — with photographs. A gap in that sequence is where liability becomes unprovable.

Two practical cautions. First, borrowers' standard forms favor borrowers; they are negotiable and lenders rarely negotiate them. Second, the largest risk in a loan is not theft — it is handling damage during installation and deinstallation, which is precisely the moment least covered by anyone's attention.

Working with dealers, advisers, and experts

The market runs on relationships and reputation, which is efficient and which conceals conflicts a buyer should understand.

The dealer is a principal or an agent, and the difference matters. A dealer selling from inventory is a seller with an interest in the price. A dealer sourcing a work for you may be acting as your agent, owing fiduciary duties — or may be taking an undisclosed margin on both sides. Ask, in writing: are you the owner of this work, and are you receiving any compensation from the seller? The answer should be in the invoice.

The adviser. A good art adviser earns their fee many times over in access, judgment, and avoided mistakes. The structure matters: a flat fee or an hourly rate aligns interests; a percentage of the purchase price creates a mild incentive to buy expensively; and an adviser also receiving a commission from the dealer has a conflict that should be disclosed and usually is not. Put the compensation arrangement in an engagement letter, including whether the adviser may accept anything from a seller.

The appraiser. Appraisals for insurance, for estate tax, and for a charitable deduction are different exercises with different standards, and a qualified appraisal for tax purposes has specific statutory requirements. Use an appraiser with the relevant credential and specialty, and understand that an appraiser who also wants to buy or broker the work has a conflict.

The expert or authentication committee. Fewer will opine now than a generation ago, several artist foundations having dissolved their boards after being sued. Where an opinion is available, ask: is it in writing; what is its scope; does it address the work itself or only the documentation; and is the expert compensated in a way that depends on the answer.

The conservator. Retain them directly rather than through the seller, get a written treatment proposal before work begins, and require documentation of what was done. A conservator's report is also a valuable condition record.

Two general rules. First, get the disclosure in writing, because the answer to "does anyone else pay you on this transaction?" is easy to give orally and awkward to give on paper — which is precisely why paper is worth asking for. Second, the people who resent these questions are the reason to ask them. Professionals with clean arrangements answer in a sentence and think better of you for it.

Selling a work you already own

Selling well is a process, and the decisions made in the first week determine the outcome more than the marketing does.

Decide the channel.

  • Auction gives reach, a public price, and a deadline, at the cost of a seller's commission, charges, and the risk of a public failure to sell — a "burned" lot that is harder to place afterward.
  • Private sale through a dealer gives discretion, no public failure, and often a better net on a difficult work, at the cost of a longer timeline and less price discovery.
  • Direct sale to a known buyer or an institution avoids commissions entirely and requires you to handle the paperwork properly.

Negotiate the auction terms. Sellers frequently do not realize these are negotiable: the seller's commission, the reserve, the estimate range, the marketing commitment, the catalogue position, illustration size, whether a guarantee is offered and on what terms, and who bears photography, shipping, insurance, and restoration costs.

Understand the guarantee. A house guarantee or a third-party irrevocable bid gives you a floor and takes some of the upside — and the third party's participation may be disclosed only in fine print. Ask what happens above the guarantee.

Prepare the work. A condition report, tasteful conservation where it genuinely helps, good photography, and a provenance and exhibition history assembled in writing all raise realized price. A seller who hands over a folder gets a better catalogue entry than one who hands over a painting.

Resolve title questions before consigning, not after. A claim surfacing mid-sale is far worse than one addressed quietly beforehand.

Understand the tax. A sale by a collector is generally taxed as a capital gain at the rate applicable to collectibles, which is higher than the ordinary long-term rate; dealers are taxed on ordinary income; and artists selling their own work are taxed on ordinary income. Ask before you sell, and consider whether a charitable disposition achieves more.

And do not sell in a hurry. Forced sales — for tax, for divorce, for an estate — realize less, and the buyers who specialize in them know exactly why the work is available.

Photography, reproduction, and images

A quiet source of disputes is the difference between owning a work and being allowed to reproduce it.

Owning the object does not include the copyright. The artist retains it unless it was made for hire or assigned in a signed writing. So the owner of a painting generally may not make and sell posters of it, license it for a book cover, or use it in advertising — though ordinary personal photographs and, in many contexts, display and sale of the physical object are unaffected.

What owners frequently need, and should get in writing:

  • A license to photograph the work for insurance and inventory purposes.
  • A license for catalogue and exhibition use, if the owner lends it.
  • A license for promotional use if the owner intends to sell it.
  • Clarity about social media posting, which is now ubiquitous and rarely addressed.

What artists should be careful about granting: an unlimited license "for any purpose," which can end up on merchandise; a license that survives the sale of the object to a third party; and any grant of the right to make derivative works, which is a different and much larger right than the right to reproduce.

For photographs of public art, the rules are more forgiving in some contexts than people assume for works incorporated into architecture, and less forgiving for freestanding sculpture. Ask before publishing.

And for institutions and publishers, the practical points are: clear the rights in writing; identify who actually holds them, which for a deceased artist may be an estate or a foundation; account for any separate rights in a photograph of the work; and keep the license for as long as the publication exists.

See Copyright Ownership, Joint Authorship, and Termination of Transfers.

Twelve mistakes

  1. Buying on a one-page invoice with no warranties.
  2. Accepting an explanation for a 1933–1945 provenance gap instead of resolving it.
  3. Not saving the dated database search results, which are the evidence of diligence.
  4. Skipping technical analysis at a value where attribution decides the price.
  5. Bidding without reading the conditions of sale, and discovering the warranty runs only to the original buyer for a limited period.
  6. Assuming the buyer's premium and taxes are included in the estimate.
  7. Consigning work to a gallery on a handshake, with no inventory and no delivery receipts.
  8. Signing a moral rights waiver without reading which uses it covers.
  9. Renovating a building without inventorying the art, researching stature, and giving the statutory notice.
  10. Insuring art under a homeowner's policy rather than an agreed-value fine art policy.
  11. Moving work without signed condition reports at every handoff.
  12. Leaving a collection to heirs with no inventory, no appraisals, and no plan for the tax.

The one-page version

Buying: written provenance with dates and names · resolve every gap, especially 1933–1945 · dated database searches, saved · condition report and, at value, technical analysis · export and import documents · express warranties of title and authenticity with a real remedy and a realistic period.

At auction: the house works for the seller · the estimate is not a warranty · the reserve is confidential · the authenticity warranty is narrow, time-limited, and runs to the original buyer · condition reports are opinions · budget the premium and taxes.

Consigning: a written agreement, a dated inventory with images, and delivery receipts · minimum price, commission, payment timing, insurance, risk of loss · proceeds held in trust.

Artists: copyright stays with you · do not waive moral rights casually · resolve removal, relocation, alteration, and destruction before installation · keep an inventory · comply with edition disclosure statutes.

Building owners: inventory the art · assess recognized stature · determine removability · send the statutory notice and document the search · honor the 90 days · negotiate a waiver where stature is likely and removal impossible.

Protecting: agreed-value fine art insurance covering loss in value · professional shipping with signed condition reports at every handoff · read the storage receipt and insure independently · written conservation proposals · an off-site inventory with images, provenance, and appraisals.

When something goes wrong: preserve the acquisition file · get counsel before responding · understand demand-and-refusal, discovery, and laches · consider negotiated resolution, which is how most of these matters actually end.

Frequently asked questions

How much diligence is enough? Enough to document: written provenance, database searches with dated results, a condition report, and express warranties. The record of the diligence is what protects you, not the diligence alone.

Does buying a painting give me the copyright? No. The copyright stays with the artist unless assigned in a signed writing.

Can I paint over a mural I own? Not safely. Works of recognized stature are protected from destruction, and the notice and 90-day removal procedure applies where removal is possible.

Is the auction house's estimate a promise? No. And the authenticity warranty is limited in scope, duration, and to the original buyer.

My gallery went under with my paintings. They are yours. Consignment statutes make the dealer a trustee and protect the works from creditors. Assert it in writing immediately, with your agreement and inventory.

Someone claims my painting was looted. Do not respond alone. Preserve your acquisition records, get counsel, and consider negotiated resolution — most of these matters settle.

Related documents

Educational only, not legal advice. Art law combines state, federal, and international sources and outcomes turn on forum and facts. Consult counsel before acquiring, selling, commissioning, or destroying significant works.