How to Consign Your Fine Art Collection For Auction

Five Steps to Consider When Consigning Your Collection at Swann

If you have a fine art collection and you are ready to have our specialists consider it for auction, here is a guide to how the consignment process begins:

1) Define & Categorize Your Collection  

Describe your collection in just a few sentences. Consider the following questions: 

• Does the collection have a cohesive thought, theme, geographical location, or time period? Is there a common thread throughout? How are the artworks connected?  
• What is the total number of artworks?  
• What are the medium/s? 

For example: The collection consists of 100 artworks; all pencil drawings by female Abstract Expressionist artists with work dates spanning the 1960s to 1970s.  

Your introduction to the collection will tell us if Swann is the right auction house to be speaking with, and gives us a sense of you as a collector. It also helps us involve the correct Swann specialists in assessing and handling your material.

2) Your Collection Logistics & Selling Intentions  

Each potential consignor has expectations about the sale of their collection. The more you can tell us about these goals, the more we will be sure to consider those intentions when drafting our consignment proposal. We want to assist you as best we can.  

Some questions to consider:

• Are you looking to sell within a specific time frame for personal or for legal reasons? 
• Are you interested in selling slowly over several years? 
• Who is the owner?  
• Who is acting as the primary contact for the collection?  
• Is the collection legally part of an estate or a trust?  
• How many selling parties are involved, and what is their contact information? 
• Do you have reserve prices in mind for the artworks that may hold more sentimental value? 
• Where and how are the artworks currently stored? 

3) A Detailed Inventory List 

Most collectors can talk fondly about their collections and tell stories associated with their passionate acquisition pursuits, but—believe it or not—most collectors do not have it all written down. Often, extensive collection inquiries come from the relatives of a deceased person, and the person now overseeing the sale of the collection knows very little about the artworks.  

In addition to being good general advice for any collector, it is important to have an up-to-date inventory list ready to share with Swann. We like to see a detailed inventory list indicating as much basic description information about the artworks as you can gather from visually looking at the artworks. This could be a typed list in a shareable document, or copies of pages from collection files.  

Maybe there is an old insurance appraisal report from a few decades ago in your files that you can use. This is often an easy way to start the conversation because these formal reports should list all the necessary information to allow for our initial market research, and usually include photographs.

We also like to review any history related to each artwork. What is the known provenance, exhibition history, publication/illustration notes, and copies of any supportive documentation (such as purchase invoices, conservation invoices, research notes, expert letters, certificates of authenticity, etc.)? 

We prefer to know as much about the artworks and collection as possible from the beginning of our conversation. In some cases, the known historical information can add value to the artwork at auction. 

The inventory list can include:  

• Artist full name 
• Artwork official or working title 
• Creation/work date 
• Type/Medium [ex: painting, oil on board, sculpture, mixed media] 
• Dimensions [height x width for 2D; height x width x depth for 3D] 
• Signature and signature location  
• Inscriptions [any writing on the object other than the signature] 
• Acquisition Date 
• Historical Notes 
• Provenance  
• Exhibition/Illustration/Publication History 
• Expert Opinions 

4) Photographs of the Collection

No, you don’t need to hire a professional fine art object photographer to take pictures of your collection. If you already have those—great!  

Most cell phones can capture fairly good quality in well-lit spaces. Try to capture the front and back sides of the artworks. 

Any other detail photos are welcome!  A close-up of the signature, a past conservation or current condition issue, or gallery labels can be helpful in giving you a good auction estimate.

5) Final Steps

Now we are ready to review your collection, whether you are a private collector, an institution, a business, or representing an artist or collector’s estate. 

When discussing collections with more than 20 artworks, we ask the owner to share digital photo files in bulk through a free online file share service (WeTransfer, Dropbox, GoogleDrive, Microsoft OneDrive). Alternatively, the files can be uploaded onto a USB stick and mailed to Swann.

Depending on the size, scale, and overall value, we may consider arranging to see the collection in person before writing a proposal. 

Either way, we are always happy to answer questions as they come up.

Contact:

Lisa Crescenzo
Managing Director of Fine Art

(212) 254-4710 ext. 51
lisa@swanngalleries.com

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