What to do if you inherit an art collection

Start with an inventory, not a valuation. Photograph every piece and record the artist, medium, size and any paperwork you have. Appraisers charge for their time, so an organized list of what exists costs less to appraise than a house full of unlabeled work. Once it is cataloged you can decide which pieces merit a formal appraisal.

Not to sell, but you generally want one for estate filings, for insurance and to avoid underpricing. Heirs in the United States usually 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. Ask an estate attorney or a qualified appraiser about your situation; this is not tax advice.

Yes, and for most inherited collections it is the practical route. The major houses focus on the highest-value consignments, and a great deal of inherited work sits below that. Selling privately, from your own site or by sending a viewing room to dealers and collectors, keeps the commission and the timeline in your hands.

Start from one shared inventory everyone can see, with photographs and any known values on each piece. Most disputes come from not knowing exactly what is in the estate, not from disagreement about who wants what. With one current list, the rest is a selection process.

Provenance is the documented ownership history of a work: receipts, gallery labels, exhibition records, letters. It supports authenticity, and buyers pay more for work whose history is clear. If the paperwork is scattered through a house, recording it while you still have access is the most valuable thing you can do.

No. Choose Collector when you sign up and the dashboard is set up around a collection: the works, their locations, viewing rooms and reports. When you are ready to sell, switch to Artist mode in Settings for the website and store tools.