The function and value of management
The collection manager is responsible for the orderly management over time of a collection that has already been formed. The owner is thus always in a position to know precisely the extent, location, condition and documentary record of their holdings. It is the ideal figure for those who do not wish, or are unable, to manage the complex day-to-day administration of a collection, or for those who have received one by inheritance.
Areas of work and key activities
The work is organised into continuous, rigorous processes:
- Inventory and cataloguing: standardised records, photographic documentation, sequential numbering and constant tracking of locations.
- Document archive: a file for each work (invoices, certificates, correspondence with artists' archives, exhibition history and bibliography), with secure back-up copies.
- Condition monitoring (condition reports): organisation of the periodic examinations entrusted to a conservator, monitoring of environmental parameters and condition surveys at every movement.
- Logistics and movements: management of loans, storage and transfers, with condition checks and insurance cover agreed on departure and on arrival.
- Coordination of specialists: selection and management of restorers, shippers, insurers, photographers and appraisers, and relations with artists' archives, preserving the historical memory of the collection.
- Planning the future of the collection: preparing the generational transfer together with the family's advisers.
Who it is for
The service is designed for collectors with complex holdings spread across several locations, companies with corporate collections, and families facing generational transfer or division of an estate. The process begins with the Collection Health Check: a survey to assess the state of the collection, identify any gaps in documentation or conservation records, and define the actual plan of work.