For heirs, executors, and families
You inherited an art collection.
Now what?
Around $1 trillion of art is expected to pass to heirs over the next decade. Most of it is not museum-bound and not headed for a marquee evening sale — it is hanging in a house someone now has to make decisions about.
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Why it feels stuck
Inheriting art is not like inheriting a brokerage account. There is no statement, no ticker, and no obvious place to take it.
The auction houses aren’t interested
Major houses concentrate on trophy consignments. A collection worth $80,000 — or $800,000 — rarely gets the same attention, so heirs are left to find buyers themselves.
Museums usually can’t take it
Most institutions already hold more than they can display and decline unsolicited gifts. Donation is rarely the easy exit it sounds like.
It costs money to do nothing
Climate-controlled storage and insurance accrue every month the decision is deferred — roughly $1,000–$2,000 a year to insure a single $100,000 work.
Several people have to agree
Siblings and executors need one shared, current list before anyone can divide, sell, or settle an estate — not a spreadsheet emailed around in three versions.
A workable order of operations
You do not have to decide what to keep and what to sell on day one. You do need to know what you have.
Get it all written down
Photograph each piece and record artist, medium, dimensions, year, and where it hangs. Add what you know — receipts, letters, exhibition labels — and leave the rest blank. A partial record beats an undocumented wall.
Build the paper trail
Attach provenance, condition notes, and documents to each work. This is what appraisers, insurers, and estate attorneys ask for first, and it is what buyers pay more for later.
Share a real list with the people who need it
Generate a clean PDF inventory for your appraiser, attorney, or siblings. Send a private viewing room to a dealer or an interested buyer — a link, not a folder of phone photos.
Sell it on your own terms
Publish some or all of the collection as your own website, set prices, and take payment directly. Keep the pieces you’re keeping private. No consignment percentage, no waiting for a sale season.
What a Collector account includes
The same tools galleries run on, arranged around a collection instead of a sales floor.
Common questions
I inherited art and have no idea what it’s worth. Where do I start?
Start with an inventory, not a valuation. Photograph every piece and record the artist, medium, size, and any paperwork you have. Appraisers charge by time, so arriving with an organized list of what exists costs less than handing over a house full of unlabeled work. Once cataloged, you can decide what merits a formal appraisal.
Do I need an appraisal before I can sell inherited art?
Not to sell, but you generally want one for estate filings, for insurance, and to avoid underpricing. Heirs in the United States typically inherit art at its fair market value on the date of death rather than what the original owner paid, so a dated valuation matters for tax purposes. Talk to an estate attorney or a qualified appraiser about your situation — this is not tax advice.
Can I sell inherited art without going through an auction house?
Yes, and for most inherited collections it is the practical route. Major houses focus on the highest-value consignments, while a great deal of inherited work sits in the range beneath that. Selling privately — from your own site, or by sharing a viewing room with dealers and collectors — keeps the commission and the timeline in your hands.
How do I split a collection between siblings fairly?
Get one shared inventory everyone can see, with photographs and any known values attached to each piece. Most disputes come from ambiguity about what is in the estate, not disagreement about who wants what. A single current list turns the conversation into a straightforward selection process.
What is provenance and why does it matter for a collection I inherited?
Provenance is the documented ownership history of a work — receipts, gallery labels, exhibition records, correspondence. It supports authenticity, and buyers pay more for work whose history is clear. If the paperwork is scattered through a house, capturing it while you still have access is the single highest-value thing you can do.
Do I need to be a dealer or gallery to use ArtVault Works?
No. Choose the Collector account at signup and the software is organized around a collection rather than a sales floor. You get the same cataloging, viewing rooms, website builder, and checkout that galleries use.
ArtVault Works is software for cataloging and selling art. Nothing here is tax, legal, or appraisal advice — for estate and tax questions, talk to a qualified professional.
Start with one wall
Catalog a few pieces and see what the collection looks like written down. You can decide what to keep, sell, or pass on from there.
Create a collector account