Works of art are movable assets: they are moved, lent, subject to deterioration and at risk of going astray. Before even requesting a valuation, anyone managing a collection needs an inventory that answers four fundamental questions: what is owned, where it is, how it is kept and what documentation accompanies it.

The strategic functions of the inventory

  • Protection in the event of theft: a stolen work can be identified and recovered by the police only if it has been recorded, described and photographed with scientific precision.
  • Establishing damage: in the event of damage during transport, storage or an exhibition loan, only a record accompanied by dated photographs makes it possible to demonstrate the condition before the loss and to distinguish recent damage from pre-existing defects.
  • Generational transfer and succession: those who inherit a collection often do not know its actual value and risk confusing its sentimental component with its commercial one. An analytical inventory prevents ill-advised sales and disputes between co-heirs, and gives the notary the technical basis needed to define the division of the estate.
  • Insurance policies, loans and sales: taking out insurance cover requires a precise statement of the works, their values and their locations. Likewise, a sale or a loan for an exhibition calls for complete records with provenance, bibliography and condition report. Every movement, transfer or pledge as security entails updating the inventory.

The distinction between the inventory and the appraisal

The inventory records and organises data, but it does not generate economic values. The determination of values falls exclusively to the appraiser, under a specific professional engagement conducted according to rigorous methodologies. Whoever keeps the inventory simply enters the values estimated in the individual records and flags them when they have become out of date.

The service begins with the Collection Health Check: an initial survey to verify the actual extent of the holdings, identify gaps in the documentation and establish whether to draw up a new inventory or revise the existing one.