What an Art Advisor Actually Does, and When You Need One

Most people meet an art advisor for the first time after something has gone wrong. A piece bought on a trip turns out to be worth a fraction of what was paid. A collection built over fifteen years has no paperwork and no buyers. An estate is being settled and nobody knows what anything is.

The work is far more useful before that point. Here is what it actually involves.

The advisor works for the buyer

A gallery works for the artist. An auction house works for the seller. A decorator works for the room. An art advisor works for you, and is paid by you, which is the whole point. The advice is not tied to what is in stock.

In practice that means someone on your side of the table who knows how prices are set, what a condition report should say, which galleries will return a call, and which "limited edition" is actually limited.

What the work looks like

Finding the piece. Sometimes a collector knows exactly what they want and the job is tracking it down, through galleries, auction houses, private dealers and other collectors. More often the brief is looser: a specific wall, a budget, an instinct for what they like. The advisor turns that into a shortlist of real options, with prices.

Checking it. Before anything is bought, it gets researched. Is the attribution right? Is the condition what the seller says it is? What has this artist's work sold for, and where? Is the provenance clean? Who holds the edition records? This is the part people skip when they buy alone, and it is where the money is lost.

Negotiating. Asking prices are not prices. An advisor knows what room there is and how to ask.

Getting it home. Framing, shipping, insurance paperwork, installation. Unglamorous, and the stage at which an unframed print gets creased or a sculpture arrives in three pieces.

Writing it down. Every piece gets a record: photographs, receipts, certificates, condition, provenance and value. For my clients that record lives in REGISTR, the collection management platform I founded, so it travels with the piece when it changes hands.

Not just paintings

The same work applies to a chair, a first edition, a watch, a ceramic. Design objects, furniture, books and collectibles have markets, fakes, condition issues and provenance just as paintings do. A collection is everything you chose to live with, and all of it deserves the same care.

When you need one

• You are moving into a new home and want to buy well rather than fast.
• You are buying your first piece over a few thousand dollars.
• You have been collecting for years and have never written any of it down.
• You inherited something and have no idea what it is.
• You want to sell and do not know where to start.

The first consultation is a conversation, not a commitment. If you recognize yourself on that list, get in touch.