Inheriting an Art Collection: The First Ninety Days

Do these things first

Before any question of keeping or selling, three things need attention: the works must be physically secure, they must be insured, and there must be a list.

Insurance is the urgent one. A policy written for the previous owner may lapse, may not cover a changed occupancy status, and may not respond at all if the property is now unoccupied. Speak to the insurer immediately and confirm in writing what is covered and on what basis.

Security follows from that. An unoccupied property containing a collection is a known risk, and insurers may impose conditions.

Build the inventory before the opinions arrive

Photograph everything: front, reverse, frame, labels, inscriptions and any visible damage. Record location, dimensions and whatever identifying information is present. Collect every document you can find — invoices, certificates, correspondence, insurance schedules, old valuations, exhibition catalogues.

Inherited collections almost always have gaps, and reconstructing provenance after the person who knew it has died is genuinely hard. Anyone still living who knows how works were acquired — a former advisor, a dealer, family members — is worth speaking to early, while memories are accessible.

Valuation is not one exercise

Different purposes require different valuations and they produce different numbers. A probate or estate-tax valuation must be prepared by a qualified appraiser to the standard the relevant authority requires. An insurance valuation reflects replacement cost. A pre-sale estimate reflects what the work might realise at auction after costs.

Treating any one of these as the work's value in all contexts causes problems. The tax figure is not the sale figure, and a beneficiary who assumes otherwise will be disappointed in one direction or the other.

Tax treatment varies by jurisdiction and by the structure holding the works, and it requires professional advice from someone qualified to give it.

Resist the pressure to sell quickly

There is almost always pressure — from liquidity needs, from multiple beneficiaries, from the administrative weight of the situation. Acting on it is usually expensive.

Selling art quickly means accepting whatever the next available sale offers, in whatever condition the market is in, without time to research what you hold or to identify the right venue for each work. The discount attached to speed in this market is substantial.

Where liquidity is genuinely urgent, it is worth selling a small number of well-understood works properly rather than the collection broadly and badly.

Then decide what it is for

Once the collection is secure, documented and valued, the real question can be asked: what should this be? Some beneficiaries keep it whole, some keep the works that mean something and place the rest, some transfer to an institution, some sell.

All of those are legitimate, and none needs deciding in the first ninety days. What does need deciding early is that nothing irreversible happens before the collection is understood — because the works sold first, under pressure and without research, are reliably the ones later regretted.