A tool to support collectors
The Artist’s Archive is a precious ally for the protection and promotion of the artistic and economic heritage of an artist’s life, in favor of the future of his production, in aid of gallery owners and in support of collectors.
The Artist Archives are born stems from a meticulous work, in order to turn into be rich sources of information and documents about the artist, whose name he usually bears, and his works; the Archives become for gallery owners and collectors, guarantors of the authenticity of the artworks of the artist and reference point in the art market as certifying the originality of the works in circulation.
Specifically, an artist archive works in these ways:
- Archiving the artist’s works
- Protecting the artist’s production
- Valorizing the artistic research
- Granting the authenticity of the works
- Keeping order in the artworks documentation
- Preserving and keeping track of the location of the works by releasing certificates of authenticity of the works and / or inserting them in the reasoned catalogs.
- Becoming a point of reference for Collectors, Galleries and Museums
The artist who decides to create his own Archive works to protect the future of his own production, countering the possible risk of the fakes, encouraging transparency of information in the market, so as to guarantee the collector to perform a proper due diligence in the research phase of the data on the works.
Today it is not uncommon for the collector, driven by the desire to start the process of inserting his artwork in the reference archive, to contact the artist’s art gallery, which in close relationship with the Archive can become a meeting point, starting up activities that can lead to complete management of the Archive by the art gallery.
Art galleries that manage, totally or in part, an Artist Archive, are growing.
Their purpose is to support the artist’s role in the system and to raise his artworks value in the market, through the participation at art fairs, the organization of exhibitions often in collaboration with museums, in the management of the loans of the works, thus becoming guarantor for collectors both in primary and secondary market.
Among the main galleries in close relationship with the artist’s Archives we find:
- Pace Gallery, in collaboration with the Art Agency Partners division of Sotheby’s for Vito Acconci
- David Zwirner, for Ruth Asawa, Joan Mitchell, Josef Albers e Diane Arbus
- Hauser & Wirth, represents over 20 archives including Philip Guston, Arshile Gorky e Gunther Forg
