Art world arm · For collectors
The collection is yours. The documentation is too.
A serious collection is two things at once: the works themselves, and the records that make them transferable. Provenance research. Chain of custody. Exhibition history. Indicated market range based on comparable sales. Without the records, the works are still beautiful — but they are harder to lend, harder to insure, harder to pass on, harder to sell.
The art world arm holds the documentation alongside the work. The records travel with the collection. When the collection moves — to another gallery, a museum loan, a private sale, an estate — the documentation moves with it.
Per-piece records that travel.
Sourced research, named experts
Documented provenance for each work in the collection — prior owners (where releasable), exhibition history, publication record, attribution opinion from named experts. Every claim cites a source. Sources are dated and identified. Disputes are recorded, not silently resolved.
The chain, intact
Chain of custody from acquisition forward: who held the work, when, where, under what conditions. Bonded movement records when applicable. Condition reports at each transfer. The record is continuous, dated, and verifiable.
Indicated range, comparable sales
For each work, an indicated market range based on documented comparable sales — not a guarantee of value, not a certification, an indication. The comparables are named. The methodology is shown. The collector can defend the indication when they need to.
Room-level, your eyes only
The records are visible to the collector, the gallery, and parties the collector explicitly grants access to. Loans, museum requests, insurance assessments, estate planning — access is granted by the collector, recorded, and time-limited. Nothing is public unless the collector makes it public.
What we say and what we don't.
The art world arm does not "authenticate," "appraise," or "guarantee." Those are legal terms with specific meanings, and they are not what this is.
This is provenance research, attribution opinion from named experts, indicated market range based on comparable sales, and sourced documentation for each claim. The collector knows exactly what they have, and exactly what kind of record stands behind it. When stronger language is needed, the collector hires a specialist; the architecture supports that work, it does not pretend to replace it.