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1970 Convention
The UNESCO convention on preventing the illicit import, export and transfer of cultural property, adopted in November 1970.
Not a title statute in itself. In the United States the implementing act bars import of cultural property documented as belonging to the inventory of a museum or monument in a state party and stolen from it after the relevant date.
The trade treats 1970 as a diligence line. A work that cannot be shown outside its source country before that year, or lawfully exported after it, is a different proposition for sale and for loan.
A
Accession
The formal act by which an institution adds an object to its permanent collection.
Not receipt, not temporary custody, and not a loan. An object can sit in a building for years without ever having been accessioned.
Confirm authority, title, restrictions and approval before treating physical arrival as ownership.
Accession number
An institution's permanent identifier for an object it owns.
Not an inventory number (private) or a lot number (one sale).
Its presence means the work was once institutionally owned. A provenance lead.
Additional insured
A party added to another's policy so it responds to their loss.
Not a certificate of insurance, which only evidences coverage exists.
Ask to be named. A certificate alone gives you nothing to claim against.
Adjuster
The insurer's representative who investigates and values a claim.
Not the surveyor, who examines the object. Not your advocate.
Everything said to an adjuster enters the claim file.
Administrator
The person appointed to settle an estate where there is no will or no named executor.
Distinct from an executor, who is named in a will, and from a trustee.
Different appointment path, same practical duties over the property.
Advisory Opinion
Guidance issued alongside the standards illustrating how a requirement applies to a situation.
Illustrative rather than binding. It does not add a requirement, and citing one does not substitute for the rule itself.
Useful when you want to understand why an appraiser handled something a particular way. Not useful as a rule to hold them to.
Aftersale
A private sale of a lot that failed to sell at auction.
Not a sale at auction, though often reported loosely as one.
Never cite as a comparable without saying what it was.
Agreed value
A figure the insurer and the insured accept in advance as the sum payable on a total loss of that object.
Not an appraisal by itself and not a blanket limit.
Confirm in writing that the policy pays the scheduled figure. A schedule attached to an indemnity policy can still be argued down after the loss.
Air waybill
The contract of carriage for air freight.
Not a bill of lading, which governs road and sea.
Contains the declared-value box, and the box decides your ceiling.
Alternate valuation date
An election permitting estate valuation six months after death.
Not available at will.
Generally allowed only where it reduces both gross estate and tax. Elected for the whole estate.
Appraisal
The act of developing an opinion of value, and the opinion itself.
Not a sale estimate and not a market opinion.
May be a figure, a range, or a relationship to a benchmark.
The Appraisal Foundation
The body that publishes the standards and the qualification criteria for appraisers in the United States.
Not a government agency, not a licensing body, and not a membership association. It authorises no one and certifies no one.
Its standards are widely required by law, lenders, courts and tax authorities, which is why compliance matters even though the Foundation itself confers nothing.
Appraisal practice
Valuation services performed by someone acting as an appraiser.
Broader than appraisal and appraisal review, which are examples.
Determines which obligations attach.
Appraisal report
The fuller of the two written reporting options, in which the appraiser summarises the information and analysis behind the opinion.
Counterpart is the restricted appraisal report, which states rather than summarises and is written for the client alone. The fuller option summarises; the restricted option states. People reverse these two verbs constantly.
Ask which option you are buying before agreeing the fee, because only the fuller one can be read and checked by someone who was not in the room.
Appraisal review
Developing an opinion about the quality of another appraiser's work.
Not a second appraisal. The subject is the report, not the property.
What you commission when you want a number challenged.
Appraisal Standards Board
The board within The Appraisal Foundation that writes and revises the standards.
Distinct from the board that sets qualification criteria for appraisers.
Its edition schedule is why a definition can be right one year and stale the next, and why every standards citation in this book carries the edition it came from.
Appraiser
One expected to perform valuation services competently and independently.
Status arises from expectation, not licence.
No government body licenses personal property appraisers in the US.
Appraiser's peers
Other appraisers with expertise in the same type of assignment.
Not colleagues generally and not the appraiser's own clients. The comparison group is defined by the work, not by the office.
This is the group against which competence and credibility are judged, which is why a challenge is answered by another appraiser in the same category rather than by a lawyer.
Art Advisory Panel
The Internal Revenue Service panel of outside dealers, scholars and curators that reviews selected art valuations referred to it.
Not Art Appraisal Services, which screens what reaches the Panel.
A Panel review is how a donation or estate figure gets tested. The taxpayer is not in the room.
Art Appraisal Services
The Internal Revenue Service unit that reviews art valuations and refers items to the Art Advisory Panel.
Not the Panel itself. AAS screens; the Panel opines.
An examiner refers to AAS first, and AAS decides whether the Panel sees it.
Artist's proof
An impression outside the numbered run.
Not a spare and not a lesser impression.
Proofs count toward effective edition size. Say how many.
As is
A sale on the object's present condition, without a promise that every catalogue statement will hold after the hammer.
Not a waiver of title defects, and not a substitute for looking at the work.
Inspect before the sale. Afterwards the condition argument is usually gone.
Assignment
A valuation service provided as a consequence of an agreement.
Not a favour and not a conversation.
Defines what obligations attach and to whom.
Assignment conditions
Assumptions and conditions that affect the scope of work.
A client instruction not affecting scope, such as a due date, is not one.
Must be identified at the outset.
Assignment results
The appraiser's opinions and conclusions.
Physical characteristics are not assignment results.
Results are confidential. Measurements generally are not.
ATA carnet
A customs document permitting temporary admission without duty.
Not an import permit and not insurance.
Wrong regime at the border means a seized work.
Attributed to
A qualifier meaning the work is probably by the named artist.
Weaker than unqualified attribution, stronger than circle of.
Every qualifier in this family moves the number.
Attribution
The judgment of who made a work.
Not authentication, which is a separate discipline with its own authorities.
An appraiser can tell you whether the attribution question is live and who should settle it, and cannot settle it.
Authentication board
A body constituted to rule on authorship for an artist.
Not the same as a catalogue raisonne project, though they overlap.
Many have disbanded. A disbanded board issues no new opinions.
B
Bailee
The party holding the property under a bailment: a shipper, a framer, a warehouse, a gallery.
Not an owner and not an agent for sale unless the contract says so.
Their liability is usually capped far below the value of the work. Ask what the cap is before the object leaves.
Bailment
Lawful possession of another person's property without any transfer of title.
Loans, consignments, storage and transport can all create one even where the contract calls it something else.
Identify who is holding the object, document every handover and its condition, and confirm who insures it while they have it.
Basis
The starting value from which a taxable gain is measured on a later sale.
Not what was paid, where property came from a decedent.
Property from a decedent generally takes a basis equal to fair market value at the date of death, which is why a low estate value costs the heirs later.
Battle of appraisers
Two opposed valuations commissioned separately, each attacked by the other side.
Distinct from an appraisal review, which examines quality rather than opposing a figure.
A jointly engaged neutral usually costs less than two reports plus the argument between them.
Betterment
An insurer's argument that restoration left the object improved.
Not diminution, which runs the other way.
Anticipate it. Document pre-loss condition.
Bias
A preference destroying impartiality, independence, or objectivity.
Not an opinion you disagree with.
Cannot be cured by disclosure.
Bill of lading
The contract of carriage for road and sea freight.
Not a warehouse receipt and not an air waybill.
The declared-value box is frequently the entire case.
Blanket coverage
Insurance covering a collection as a whole up to one limit, with no object listed.
Distinct from scheduled coverage, which lists each work at a stated value.
A single work outgrowing the blanket limit is what usually triggers the first appraisal.
Blockage
A discount where quantity could not be sold at once without depressing the market.
Not a bulk discount or a haircut for inconvenience.
Central in artist estates, where the studio arrives at once.
Bon a tirer
The proof the artist accepts as the standard the edition must match.
Not a proof for sale. It is the yardstick.
Its existence and location are provenance facts.
Bought in
A lot offered at auction that failed to reach its reserve and went unsold. Also called passed.
Not a withdrawal, not an aftersale, and not a transaction even where a last bid shows online.
Never use the figure as a comparable. The work returns to the owner with a public record of not selling, which makes an immediate resale harder.
Buyer's premium
The percentage the house adds to hammer, paid by the buyer.
Not the seller's commission, which is separate.
A reported price may be hammer or hammer-plus-premium. Establish which.
C
Care, custody, and control
Policy wording about property physically held, managed or controlled by the insured.
A general liability certificate does not show that a client's art is covered while you have it.
Get written confirmation that names the object, the exclusions, the limits, the locations and transit.
Carmack Amendment
The US statute governing interstate motor carrier liability.
Not applicable to air, ocean, or intrastate carriage.
Permits limitation to declared or released value where the shipper had a real choice.
Catalogue raisonne
A scholarly attempt at a complete catalogue of an artist's work.
Not a price guide and not an authentication service, though inclusion functions as one.
Exclusion can make a work practically unsaleable.
Certificate of authenticity
A document asserting a work is by whom it claims.
A document, not a proof.
Worth what the issuer is worth and no more than the record supports.
Certificate of insurance
Evidence that a policy exists, issued to a third party.
Not coverage. It does not make you an insured.
Ask for additional insured status and waiver of subrogation.
Certification
The signed page of a report in which the appraiser states, among other things, that the facts are true, that the analysis is impartial and unbiased, that the appraiser has no interest in the property, that the fee is not contingent, whether the property was personally inspected, whether anyone gave significant appraisal assistance and who, and what services the appraiser performed regarding the property in the three years before agreeing to the assignment.
Not a certificate of authenticity and not a credential. The appraiser's qualifications are a separate report element, conventionally an addendum, not a statement inside the certification.
Signing it is the act of claiming compliance. It is the assurance the client is buying.
Chain of custody
The documented sequence of who held an object, when, and in what condition.
Not provenance, which is a chain of ownership.
Every undocumented handoff is where a claim can fail.
Chandelier bid
A bid called by the auctioneer that comes from no one in the room, used to move bidding up toward the reserve.
Not a real offer. Seller-side bidding is lawful only where the right to bid was expressly reserved and disclosed. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, if such a bid is taken without notice, the buyer may avoid the sale or take the goods at the last good-faith bid.
Read the conditions of sale for the reserved right. Bidding below the reserve tells you less about demand than bidding above it.
Channels
The routes by which a work can be sold: gallery, dealer, auction, private treaty, direct from the studio.
Not one market. They differ on price, on speed, on cost and on who carries the risk.
Choose the channel for the object and the deadline first, then commission any appraisal to that level of trade.
Checksum
A string calculated from a digital file's bytes that shows whether the file has changed.
Not a filename, a date, a visual comparison, or proof of authenticity. The Library of Congress calls fixity the property of a file being fixed or unchanged.
Record it before a transfer and calculate it again afterwards. A match proves the bytes survived. Nothing else does.
Circle of
A qualifier meaning a work of the period showing influence, by an unidentified hand.
Weaker than attributed to, stronger than after.
Moves the number materially.
Cleavage
A separation between paint layers, or between paint and ground, or between ground and support.
Not craquelure. This is active structural failure rather than age.
Work with lifting or cupping paint can lose material when it moves. Have a conservator stabilise it where it stands, before anyone carries it.
Client
The party who engages the appraiser.
Not necessarily who pays the fee, and not everyone who receives the report.
Only the client and authorised parties may rely on the work.
COGSA
The Carriage of Goods by Sea Act governing US ocean carriage.
Its per-package limitation is severe relative to art values.
Determines the ceiling before any negotiation begins.
Collectibles rate
The maximum federal long-term capital gains rate applied to gain on the sale of art and other collectibles held more than one year.
Higher than the top rate on stock or real estate, and it is a ceiling rather than a flat charge: the gain is taxed at the lesser of that ceiling and the seller's ordinary marginal rate, with the net investment income tax possibly on top.
A seller who forecasts net proceeds using the ordinary long-term rate will overstate the cash that reaches them. Ask the accountant for the figure before agreeing a reserve or a floor price.
Comparable
A transaction in a similar object used as evidence of value.
A sold price, not an asking price.
An asking price is evidence about asking.
Competency
The requirement that an appraiser have demonstrable knowledge of the specific property type and its market.
Category specific. Competence in painting is not competence in jewelry.
An appraiser outside their competence must acquire it, disclose the gap, or decline.
Competency Rule
The requirement that an appraiser have the knowledge and experience for the specific assignment before accepting it.
Category specific and assignment specific. Competence in paintings is not competence in jewellery, and competence generally is not competence in this object.
An appraiser lacking it must disclose the gap to you before accepting, take the steps needed to complete the work competently, and describe both in the report. Disclosure alone is not a cure.
Component
A physically separable part that belongs to a single work.
Not an accessory and not packing, although the artist's own documentation can make a frame, a monitor or a cable a component.
Give the work one record and each component a part number, then count them at every movement. A period frame can be worth more than the picture.
Concealed damage
Damage not visible at delivery.
Not visible damage, and the notice window is usually far shorter.
Photograph the unpacking, not just the crate.
Condition report
A dated written description of an object's physical state.
A description, not a diagnosis.
Incoming and outgoing reports bracket every movement.
Conditions of sale
The auction house's printed terms.
These, not the catalogue, are the actual contract.
Read warranty period and limitation of liability before consigning.
Confidential information
Information the client identified as confidential and unavailable elsewhere.
Distinct from assignment results, protected by a different rule.
Governs what an appraiser may say and to whom.
Conflict of interest
A stake or relationship that gives someone a reason to prefer one outcome in work they were engaged to do impartially.
Not bias. A conflict can sometimes be disclosed and managed. Bias cannot be cured by disclosure.
Ask about ownership, commissions, referral fees, prior services and relationships before you rely on anyone's number.
Conservation
Stabilising an object and slowing deterioration.
Distinct from restoration, which returns an appearance.
The distinction affects both ethics and value.
Conservator
A trained practitioner who examines an object and treats it to arrest deterioration or recover appearance.
Not an appraiser, a framer, an adjuster or a restorer working without a written record.
Call one before anyone cleans, tapes, varnishes or improvises, and ask for a written examination and proposal.
Consign
To hand a work to a dealer or auction house to sell on your behalf.
You keep title. They take possession and a commission.
What happens if they fail is decided by the contract and the statute, not by fairness.
Consignment
An arrangement where a dealer holds work they do not own.
The gallery has possession. You retain title.
What happens if the gallery fails is decided by statute and contract.
Contingent fee
Compensation dependent on reaching a particular result.
In appraisal practice, prohibited outright in defined forms.
A fee quoted as a percentage of value is the clearest disqualifier.
Copyright
The exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, display and adapt an original work.
Separate from owning the object. Title 17 section 202 says ownership of a copyright is distinct from ownership of any material object in which the work is embodied.
Buying the painting does not buy the right to reproduce it. Any transfer must be in writing, and a sale, loan or deed of gift should say which image uses are permitted.
Cost
The amount required to create, reproduce, replace, or obtain a thing.
A fact when incurred, an estimate when projected. Neither price nor value.
Does not establish worth in a market of non-substitutable objects.
Courier
A person accompanying a work in transit with authority over handling.
Not a shipper and not a delivery driver.
Their authority must be stated in writing before departure.
Craquelure
The network of fine cracks that forms in paint and ground as materials age and move.
A normal consequence of age, not damage. Cupping, lifting edges and flaking are the signs that matter, and cracks alone are not.
Most pictures of any age show it, so its absence on a work said to be old is a reason for technical examination. It proves nothing on its own, and it can be induced artificially.
Crate
A purpose-built container specified for a particular object and journey.
Not a box, and not a grade above a travel frame. A different tool.
After a loss it is evidence. Do not discard it.
Credible
Worthy of belief.
Not the same as certain or correct.
Requires support by evidence and logic to the degree the use demands.
Customs value
The value declared for an object on a customs entry.
Not insurance value, not declared carrier value, and not a token figure. Loans and gifts still need a defensible number.
Agree the basis and the supporting document with the broker before the shipment leaves.
D
Data logger
A device recording temperature, humidity, or shock over time.
Not a shock indicator, which shows only that a threshold was crossed.
Download and preserve the record before anything moves.
Day rate
A flat daily fee covering travel and time for work outside the immediate area.
Distinct from hourly plus travel, which usually costs more.
Lets several nearby assignments share one trip.
Deaccession
An institution's formal removal of an object from its permanent collection.
The American Alliance of Museums treats it as two steps: the removal, and then the separate decision about what happens to the object. Removal is not sale.
Restrictions in the original gift may prevent the object leaving at all. A buyer who ignores them buys a claim along with the work.
Declared value
The value written on the carriage document.
Frequently a liability ceiling rather than a statement of worth.
Silence usually means released value applies instead.
Deed of gift
The instrument transferring ownership of objects or papers to an institution.
Not a loan and not a deposit.
Should state what transfers, including copyright, which frequently does not.
Delivery receipt
The document signed at delivery.
Signing clean states nothing was visibly wrong.
Note specific damage. Subject to inspection is weak.
Deposition
Sworn testimony taken outside court.
Distinct from trial testimony, though both are billed at litigation rates.
A reserved day is generally not resold if the matter settles.
Designation
A credential conferred by a professional appraisal association for a category of property.
Not a licence, and not the same as USPAP compliance.
Some assignments and some advisors require one. It is a route to qualified appraiser status, not the only route.
Digital remains
Accounts, files, sites, wallets, and credentials of a deceased person.
Part of the inventory, not an afterthought.
Access is often governed by platform terms rather than the will.
Dimensional weight
A billing weight derived from the volume a shipment occupies rather than the mass it has, calculated by dividing cubic dimensions by a divisor the carrier sets.
Carriers bill the greater of actual and dimensional weight. The divisor is not a law of physics, it is a term in the carrier's own service guide, and it differs between carriers, between list and retail rates, and between domestic and international service.
A light work in a large crate is priced on air. Get the divisor from the carrier in writing before the crate is designed, because a crate built two inches larger can cost more to ship than the work cost to conserve.
Dimensions
The measurements that state an object's physical extent.
Image, sheet, support, framed and overall dimensions are different numbers and are not interchangeable.
State the unit, the order, and which part was measured. An unexplained pair of numbers is not a measurement.
Diminution in value
Value that remains missing after restoration is complete.
A separate assignment from the repair estimate.
Separately payable under many policies. Ask for it explicitly.
Droit de suite
A resale royalty payable to an artist on secondary sales, where such a right exists in law.
Not a feature of United States federal law. The California Resale Royalty Act was the only domestic statute, and in Close v. Sotheby's, Inc., 894 F.3d 1061 (9th Cir. 2018), the Ninth Circuit held it expressly preempted by 17 U.S.C. Section 301(a) for sales on or after 1 January 1978, leaving only calendar year 1977 unpreempted.
Check the law of the place of sale, not the nationality of the artist. A United States seller ordinarily owes no resale royalty, but a work sold at a European saleroom may carry one.
E
Edition
A defined number of impressions or casts produced as a set.
The stated number is often not the effective number once proofs are counted.
Effective size drives value more than nominal size.
Effective date
The date to which a value opinion applies.
Distinct from the report date. Both belong in the document.
For a loss it is the date of loss.
Engagement letter
The written agreement establishing an appraisal assignment.
Not a quote.
Should name client, users, use, value type, date, option, and fee basis.
Equitable distribution
The division of property between parties, most often in divorce.
Standards vary by jurisdiction and are not fair market value everywhere.
The standard determines the number before any object is examined.
Escrow
Funds or property held by a neutral third party pending completion.
Not a deposit held by the seller.
The only structure that protects both sides in a private sale.
Estimate
The auction house's published expected range.
Not an appraisal, not a valuation, and not a promise.
A marketing instrument set partly to attract bidding.
Ethics Rule
The section of the standards governing conduct, management, confidentiality and record keeping.
Not a code of manners. It is enforceable, and it is what a state board or an association would apply to a complaint.
Its management section prohibits false, misleading or exaggerated advertising, which is why no honest appraiser claims to be USPAP certified.
Evidence preservation
Keeping the object, the crate, the packing, the indicators, the photographs and the records as they were when the loss was found.
Not a condition report written afterwards, and not a verbal account to an adjuster.
Do not throw away the crate. Do not repair first. Claims are won and lost on what still exists on the first day.
Ex Works
An Incoterms rule under which the seller's only duty is to make the goods available at their own premises, not loaded.
The rule that puts the least obligation on the seller. Loading, export clearance, transport, risk and cost all sit with the buyer from that point.
If the crate is dropped in the gallery's own loading bay by the buyer's shipper, it is the buyer's loss. Agree the term before you agree the price.
Exclusivity
A contractual right giving one party sole authority over stated works, territories, channels or periods.
Not inherent in representation and not inherent in consignment.
Define every boundary and the termination right. An unqualified clause can capture sales the representative had nothing to do with.
Executor
The person named in a will to administer an estate.
Not an administrator, appointed where there is no will or no named executor, and not a trustee or a relative acting informally.
Take instructions about estate property only from someone whose authority has been established. Acting before letters issue can create personal liability.
Exhibition copy
A copy of a time-based or installed work made for display.
Not the collectible edition and not a spare master.
Selling one as the edition is a serious misrepresentation.
Exhibition history
The documented list of exhibitions a work has appeared in.
Not provenance and not literature. Appearing in a catalogue does not prove the work was hung.
Verify venue, city, dates, title, catalogue entry and lending credit before repeating a claim someone else made.
Expert witness
An appraiser engaged to give opinion testimony.
Distinct from a party's advocate. The opinion does not change with who pays.
The report has to survive cross examination, which changes how it is documented from the outset.
Export licence
Government permission to remove a work from a country that claims control over it.
Not an ATA carnet, which governs temporary admission, and not an insurance document.
The law of the place the work is leaving governs, not the nationality of the owner. Moving first and applying later is how works are seized.
Exposure time
A supported opinion of how long a property would have been offered before a hypothetical sale.
Retrospective. It looks backward.
Distinct from marketing time. Required where the value definition uses it.
F
Facility report
A standardised statement of a borrower's building, climate, security, and staffing.
Not a courtesy document.
No report, no loan.
Fair market value
The price between willing buyer and willing seller, neither compelled, both informed.
Not retail replacement and not asking price.
The implied market is where such property is most commonly sold to the public.
Fake
Broadly, an object presented as something it is not.
Usage varies and no authority settles it. Some writers reserve fake for a genuine object tampered with and forgery for a work made outright to deceive. Others treat them as near synonyms separated by intent.
Say which sense you mean whenever you use either word in writing. The imprecision is real and it has cost people money in correspondence.
Federal filing threshold
The level above which a federal estate tax return must be filed, tested not on the gross estate alone but on the gross estate plus adjusted taxable gifts plus specific exemption.
Distinct from any state threshold, which is often far lower and which many estates cross while the federal test is not met. An estate below the federal figure on gross assets alone can still be required to file once lifetime taxable gifts are added back.
Whether a return is filed decides whether a formal appraisal is needed at all. Ask the accountant first.
Fiduciary
A person holding a duty to act in another's interest.
Executors and trustees are. Dealers and advisors generally are not.
Determines whose interest governs when they conflict.
Follower of
A qualifier meaning work in the artist's style by someone working under their influence, generally in the artist's lifetime or shortly after.
Weaker than circle of and stronger than manner of, which signals the same style at a later date. The usual descending order runs: by, attributed to, studio of, circle of, follower of, manner of, after.
Each step down the ladder moves the number, sometimes by an order of magnitude. Read the exact words in a catalogue rather than the artist's name.
Forced liquidation value
Value assuming sale on a fixed short timetable to available buyers.
Distinct from orderly liquidation, which allows a reasonable period.
Both assume compulsion. They differ in how much.
Form 706
The United States federal estate tax return.
Distinct from Form 8283, which reports charitable contributions.
Art valuations are attached to it, and the value finally determined generally sets the heirs' basis.
Form 8283
The US form reporting noncash charitable contributions.
Filing is not the same as substantiating.
Above thresholds a qualified appraisal is required and may need attaching.
Found in collection
An object an institution holds with no reliable record of how it arrived or who owns it.
Not an accessioned object, not abandoned property, and not a gift merely because nobody has claimed it.
Open a provisional record and settle title before lending, accessioning, selling or disposing of it.
Foxing
Reddish brown spotting on paper, generally from mould or metallic impurities.
A condition term, not a damage event.
Common on works on paper and material to value.
Fractional gift
The gift of a partial interest in a work to an institution, transferring ownership in stages.
Not an outright donation. The donor keeps possession for part of each year.
The rules on completing the gift and on valuing each tranche are strict and the penalties for getting them wrong are real. This is a tax adviser's question before it is an appraiser's.
Free evaluation
An unpaid opinion of value, usually from an auction house.
Not an appraisal, and not a document.
Useful and worth having. It answers what that house can sell the work for, from a party paid out of the sale.
Freeport
A customs-controlled warehouse where imported goods can be stored without duty or import tax being assessed.
Those charges are suspended, not cancelled, and fall due if the goods enter the domestic market. It does not touch the owner's income or capital gains tax.
Storage can run indefinitely and work can change hands inside the zone, which is why these facilities attract scrutiny. Ask what regime the specific facility operates under.
G
Glassine
A smooth, grease-resistant paper used as an interleaving barrier.
A barrier material, not a cushioning material.
Using it as padding protects nothing.
Good title
Ownership that can be passed on free of a superior claim.
Not possession, not provenance, and not an invoice from someone who had no right to sell.
A thief cannot pass title, so a later good-faith buyer still loses the object. Search a stolen-art database before you pay.
Gross estate
The total value of everything a decedent owned at death, before deductions.
Distinct from the taxable estate, which is what remains after deductions.
Determines whether a return is required.
Ground
The preparation layer between the support and the paint. Gesso is the traditional version, chalk or gypsum bound in animal size.
Not the support and not the paint. Modern acrylic sold as gesso is a different material.
It is what everything above it depends on, which is why a support problem shows up in the paint. Describing it is your job. Diagnosing it is not.
Guarantee
An undertaking that a lot will realise at least a set sum.
Where one exists, sold may have been settled before bidding.
Read the catalogue symbols key before consigning or bidding.
H
Halftone pattern
The regular dot or rosette structure visible under magnification in a mechanically printed image.
Distinct from the texture of paint or the plate mark of an intaglio print.
Its presence usually settles that an object is a reproduction rather than an original.
Hammer price
The price at which bidding closes, before premium.
Not what the buyer paid and not what the seller received.
Comparables must state which figure they are.
Handling
The movement of an object by people, in rooms and loading bays.
Not packing and not transit.
Most damage happens in rooms rather than in trucks. Decide who may touch the work and write it down before it moves.
Heads of loss
The separate categories under which a claim is valued.
Repair, diminution, and total loss are distinct.
Keeping them separate prevents one settlement absorbing the others.
Hors commerce
An impression designated not for sale.
Still part of the edition's effective count.
Must be disclosed when the edition is described.
Hypothetical condition
A condition known to be contrary to fact, adopted deliberately for analysis.
Distinct from an extraordinary assumption, which concerns uncertainty.
Valuing a damaged work as undamaged is one, and must be labelled.
I
Immunity from seizure
Statutory protection preventing loaned works from being seized.
Not automatic and not universal.
Ask before the crate leaves.
Importer of record
The party legally responsible for the accuracy of an import entry.
Not necessarily the consignee, and not the customs broker. Federal regulation makes the duty a personal debt of the importer, and paying a broker does not discharge it if the broker does not pay.
Name the importer before the shipment moves, and align the invoice, the entry instructions and the broker's authority.
Inherent vice
The tendency of an object's own materials to deteriorate.
Not accidental damage.
Commonly excluded from insurance. Critical for unstable materials.
Inpainting
Paint applied only within areas of loss, to fill what is missing.
Not overpainting, which covers original surface.
Extent still moves the number. Ask the conservator for a map of what is original and what is not.
Inscription
Any writing, stamp, label, number or mark on the object or attached to it.
A transcription records what is there. An interpretation claims what it means. Keep them apart in the record.
Transcribe verbatim, say where it is, and photograph it before anything is cleaned, reframed or unmounted.
Intangible property
Rights and interests that have value but no physical form, such as copyright in an image.
Distinct from the object. Buying a painting does not buy the right to reproduce it, and inheriting a studio does not automatically settle who may license the work.
Two different assets, sometimes two different owners, and often two different appraisers. Ask which one is being valued.
Intended use
The use of a valuation's results, identified at the time of the assignment.
Distinct from intended user.
Drives value type, market, scope, and therefore the number.
Intended user
The client plus any party identified by name or type as a user of the report.
Reading a report does not make you one.
If you are not one you may have no right to rely on it.
Inventory
A controlled list recording each object's identifier, description, location, ownership and status.
Not an appraisal, not a catalogue raisonne, and not a folder of photographs.
Number, photograph, count and locate before any valuation, movement, consignment or distribution begins.
Inventory number
A private owner's or dealer's own identifier.
Not an accession number.
Old numbers on a verso are provenance evidence.
Invoice
The seller's record of a transfer, naming the parties, the object, the price, the tax and the terms.
Not a certificate of authenticity, not an appraisal, and not proof of title merely because it was paid.
A cash deal with no invoice is how title, tax and insurance claims all fail at once. Keep the final paid version with the object record.
Irrevocable bid
A commitment to bid at least a specified amount, made before the sale.
Related to guarantees. Not a bidder in the ordinary sense.
Changes what a reported result means.
ISPM-15
The international standard requiring solid wood packaging used in international trade, including crates, pallets and dunnage over six millimetres thick, to be heat treated or fumigated and stamped with the IPPC mark.
Engineered wood is outside it. Plywood, particle board, oriented strand board and veneer are treated as processed and need no mark, as does solid wood six millimetres or thinner. A crate combining both requires treatment of its solid components, so the exemption rarely covers a whole crate.
Not optional and not retrofittable once the crate is built. An unmarked solid wood crate can be refused, treated at your cost, or destroyed at the border. Confirm with the crate builder in writing that the crate is compliant, and keep the mark photographed in the object record.
J
Joint survey
An examination of damaged property attended by interested parties.
Not your own conservator's inspection.
Arrange it before anything is treated.
Jointly engaged neutral
One appraiser engaged by opposing parties together, with both named as intended users.
Distinct from each side commissioning its own appraiser.
Usually faster and cheaper than two reports, and it removes the battle of appraisers.
Jurisdictional exception
The provision under which part of the standards is set aside because a law or regulation makes compliance impossible.
Narrow. It voids only the conflicting part, and only where a genuine legal conflict exists. It is not a way to opt out of an inconvenient requirement.
If a report invokes it, it must say which part is set aside and which law compelled it. A vague invocation is a red flag.
L
Letters testamentary
The court document confirming an executor's authority.
Until they issue, power to act is limited.
Acting without them can create personal liability.
Level of trade
The market layer in which a work trades: auction, dealer, gallery retail, wholesale, replacement.
The same object carries different numbers at different levels, at the same moment, all of them correct. See also levels of trade.
A report must identify which market it relied on, or the number cannot be checked.
Levels of trade
The distinct markets in which the same object trades simultaneously.
The personal property analogue to highest and best use.
Identifying the wrong level is why two people disagree while both are right.
Licence
Permission from a rights holder to use a work within stated limits.
Not ownership and not a transfer of copyright. An exclusive licence and a non-exclusive one have different consequences for both sides.
Put the work, the uses, the media, the territory, the term, the credit, the fee, sublicensing and termination in writing.
Lifetime cast
A cast made during the artist's lifetime, generally under their authority.
Not a posthumous cast from the same mould, and not an unauthorised later cast.
The distinction moves the price. Ask for the foundry mark, the date of the pour, and who authorised it.
Lining
A secondary support adhered to the back of a canvas to stabilise it.
A conservation treatment, not damage.
Material to condition and generally reduces value even when well executed.
Liquidation value
What property brings when it must be sold under time pressure with limited market exposure.
The lowest of the standard figures.
Applies to forced sales and some bankruptcies, and to estates that must close on a fixed date.
Loan agreement
The contract governing a temporary transfer for exhibition.
Not a consignment. Nothing is for sale.
Should fix insurance, condition reporting, transport, credit, photography.
Loss in value
The difference between what a work was worth before an incident and what it is worth after any restoration.
The trade also calls this diminution of value. Distinct from the cost of repair.
A claim supported only by a repair estimate answers a third of the question.
Lot
The unit offered as a single transaction at auction.
One lot can hold several objects, and the lot number identifies it only in that sale.
Keep the contents together in the record. Do not allocate a lot result among the objects in it without support.
Loupe
A small magnifier used to examine surface and printing structure.
A viewing tool, not an analytical instrument.
Settles most painting-versus-reproduction questions in seconds.
M
Market value
A type of value presuming transfer under stated conditions.
There is no single authorised definition.
Two reports saying market value can mean different things.
Marketable cash value
Fair market value less the costs of achieving a sale.
Not fair market value and not net proceeds from a specific offer.
The least flattering figure and frequently the most useful.
Marketing time
A forward-looking estimate of how long a sale would take from today.
Not exposure time, which looks backward, and not a defined term.
Cannot substitute for exposure time where a definition requires it.
Medium
The materials and means by which a work is made.
Distinct from support, which is what it is made on.
Oil on canvas names both.
Misleading
A report is misleading if it causes a reasonable person to reach a conclusion the evidence does not support, whether by what it says or by what it leaves out.
Not the same as wrong. A report can contain no false statement and still mislead, by omitting the assumption that carries the number or by burying the market it relied on.
This is the standard an appraiser is actually held to, so it is also the test you can apply. Ask what a stranger reading the report alone would conclude, and whether that conclusion is supported.
Mitigation
Steps taken after an incident to stop the loss getting worse.
Not restoration and not permanent treatment.
Make it safe, document the condition, notify who must be notified, and get conservation direction before anyone intervenes.
Montreal Convention
The treaty governing international carriage by air.
Its notice periods are measured in days, not months.
Missing notice can extinguish the claim regardless of merit.
Moral rights
Rights of attribution and integrity attaching to the author.
Independent of ownership.
Narrow and statutory in the US, broader and often inalienable elsewhere.
N
NAGPRA
The United States statute governing Native American human remains, funerary objects, sacred objects and objects of cultural patrimony.
It binds federal agencies and any museum, university or state or local body that receives federal funds and holds such items. It is not a general title statute for private sales.
An object in these categories may not be free to sell, give or exhibit. Ask before it moves.
Nail-to-nail
Insurance covering a work from the moment it leaves its place until return.
Distinct from wall-to-wall and transit-only.
Establish which you have before the work moves.
Net proceeds
What the seller actually keeps after commission, fees, advances and every other contractual deduction.
Not the hammer price, not what the buyer paid, and not the figure after tax.
Ask for a written net estimate before you set a reserve or pick a channel.
Newly acquired clause
A term giving automatic cover to objects added to a collection for a limited period before they are scheduled.
Not unlimited, not automatic beyond the stated window, and not a substitute for scheduling.
Read the cap and the number of days. A purchase left unscheduled past the window is uninsured.
Notice of claim
The formal communication asserting a claim, filed within the period the contract or the governing regime allows.
Distinct from notice of damage, which is immediate and runs on a far shorter clock.
Missing the immediate notice of damage can extinguish the later claim no matter how good it is. Send the short notice first, then build the claim.
Notice of damage
Prompt written notice that an object or shipment arrived damaged or suffered an incident.
Not the later notice of claim and not the sworn proof of loss.
Send it to every party the contract requires, immediately, and keep proof that it arrived.
O
Object ID
The international standard minimum description for identifying a stolen object.
A documentation standard, not a registry.
Complete it before you need it. Afterwards is too late.
Off-market
A work offered privately, without public exhibition, advertising or a catalogue.
Not a failed sale and not a withdrawal.
Nothing becomes public, so the work is not burned if it does not sell. It also means the price you are quoted cannot be checked against anything.
Orderly liquidation value
Value assuming a limited but reasonable selling period.
Distinct from forced liquidation.
Frequently the operative number in an estate that must close.
Orphan work
A work still in copyright whose owner cannot be identified or found after a diligent search.
Not a work in the public domain. The copyright still exists and the owner can still appear.
There is no United States orphan works exception. Anyone who reproduces one is an ordinary infringer if the owner surfaces, so institutions limit how they publish them.
Overpainting
Paint applied over an artist's original surface, whether by restoration or by another hand.
Distinct from inpainting confined to losses.
Extent of overpainting is one of the largest condition-driven adjustments to value.
P
Packing specification
A written description of how an object is to be packed.
Museum quality is not a specification.
Without one, competing quotes are not comparable.
Pair and set clause
A provision governing damage to one item of a pair, a set or a larger group.
Damage to one part does not by itself make the whole group a total loss.
Document the relationship between the objects, and read what the insurer may pay and what it may keep if the group is broken.
Passport
The documentation packet that travels with an object.
An informal term in this book, not a standard.
Missing pages are how claims and donations fail.
Payment terms
The written rule for when a dealer or house must pay the consignor after a sale.
Not the sale itself and not an assurance that they are good for it.
The gap between the buyer paying and you being paid is credit risk. Date it, and ask what happens if the buyer is late or the dealer fails.
Personal inspection
First-hand examination of a work, as distinct from working from photographs.
Not required by the standards in every assignment.
The report states which objects were inspected and which were not, and what was assumed instead.
Personal property
Property that is movable and not permanently affixed to land or a building.
The dividing line that decides which kind of appraiser you need. A painting is personal property; the wall it hangs on is real property; a mural painted onto that wall may be either, and the answer changes who can value it.
Ask an appraiser which of the two they are qualified in before anything else. The credentials, the standards training and the market knowledge are different, and an appraiser of one is not an appraiser of the other.
Plate mark
The pressed ridge framing an image where an inked metal plate met the paper.
Suggests an intaglio print rather than a mechanical reproduction.
Fake plate marks are common enough that this settles nothing on its own.
Post-restoration value
What a work is worth once conservation is complete.
Distinct from pre-loss value and from the cost of the treatment.
One of three separate findings a damage claim needs.
Pre-loss value
What a work was worth immediately before an incident.
Distinct from a prior appraisal, which may be stale or on the wrong definition.
Establishable from photographs and records where no current appraisal existed.
Preservation master
The authoritative highest-quality digital file kept for the long term.
Not an exhibition copy, an access copy, a proxy or a working file.
Keep it read-only with its checksum, and make verified derivatives for everything else. Editing the master is how a digital work is lost.
Price
The amount asked, offered, or paid.
A fact once stated. Not a statement about value.
One transaction is not evidence of a market.
Primary market
The first sale of a work out of the studio or its representing gallery, at a price the artist and gallery set.
Distinct from the secondary market, where price is discovered on resale.
Appraised value rests on secondary evidence, which is why new work by a living artist is a pricing question rather than an appraisal question.
Printer's proof
An impression outside the numbered run, historically for the printer.
Counts toward effective edition size.
Must be disclosed when the edition is described.
Private treaty
A negotiated private sale, often arranged outside a public sale.
Not an auction result and not public.
Use as a comparable only with the circumstances stated.
Pro forma invoice
A preliminary bill issued before shipment, stating the value for customs and payment purposes.
Not the final demand for payment and not evidence of a completed sale.
Use it to obtain permits and clear customs. Do not use it as proof of what was paid.
Probate inventory
The schedule of estate property filed with the court.
Distinct from the estate tax return, though it draws on the same valuations.
An executor generally needs one whether or not a tax return is filed.
Promised gift
A commitment to give a work to an institution at a future date, often at death.
Not a completed gift and not a loan. Title has not moved.
Whether the owner can still sell depends entirely on whether the promise was made binding. Read the document.
Proof of loss
The sworn statement of a claim submitted to an insurer.
A formal document with its own deadline, distinct from initial notice.
Sworn. Errors in it are not clerical.
Provenance
The documented history of ownership.
Distinct from chain of custody and from attribution.
A documented gap is stronger than an invented bridge.
Q
Qualified appraisal
An appraisal meeting specified regulatory requirements as to content, timing, preparer.
Not simply an appraisal by a good appraiser.
A deduction can fail on the appraisal alone.
Qualified appraisal window
The period within which a donation appraisal must be signed.
Not the date of the report generally, but a defined window around the gift and the return.
Signing outside it is a common and fatal defect. Generally no earlier than sixty days before the contribution and no later than the return due date including extensions.
Qualified appraiser
A term of art with defined requirements as to credentials and independence.
Not someone in the trade and not self-declared.
Using the wrong person voids the substantiation.
R
Raking light
Illumination at a shallow angle across a surface.
A viewing technique, not a scientific analysis.
Reveals planar distortion and losses a flat photograph hides.
Real property
The rights and interests in land and what is permanently attached to it.
Distinct from real estate, which is the physical land and improvements themselves, and from personal property, which moves.
If your question is about a building, a fixture, or a mural that cannot come off the wall, you are looking for a different profession.
Reasonable cause
The defence that excuses a substantiation failure where the taxpayer acted in good faith on competent advice.
Not a cure for the failure itself. The deduction can still be reduced or lost on valuation grounds while the penalty is excused.
In WT Art Partnership the appraisals were held not to be qualified appraisals, reasonable cause excused that defect, and a forty per cent gross valuation misstatement penalty still applied to one year.
Record Keeping Rule
The requirement that an appraiser build a workfile before issuing a report and keep it for a stated minimum period.
Applies to oral reports as much as written ones. The file is the appraiser's, not the client's.
A figure with no file behind it cannot be defended later. Ask whether a workfile exists before relying on a number given over the phone.
Recto and verso
Front and back.
The verso is frequently where identity lives.
Photograph it every time.
Related use
The requirement that a donee's use relate to its exempt purpose.
A museum hanging a painting generally satisfies it. A lobby may not.
The deduction can turn on this alone.
Relative humidity
Water vapour in air as a percentage of capacity at that temperature.
Fluctuation matters more than any single figure.
Stability beats any particular target for most materials.
Release
A document extinguishing a claim in exchange for payment.
Not a receipt.
Can extinguish rights against an insurer or the insurer's against a carrier.
Released value
A minimal level of carrier liability, expressed as an amount per pound rather than as what the object is worth.
Not the value of the object, and not always the default. On an interstate household goods move federal rules make full value protection the default and require the shipper to sign a waiver to drop to released value. On ordinary parcel and freight tariffs the low limit does apply unless a value is declared.
Read which regime you are under before you assume you are covered, and declare a value in writing where declaring is what buys the cover.
Report
Any communication of an appraisal, written or oral.
An oral value communication is a report.
Carries the same obligations, including a workfile.
Representation agreement
The contract governing an ongoing artist and gallery relationship.
Not a consignment of particular objects and not a waitlist.
Settle custody, exclusivity, discount authority, expenses, payment deadlines, records, image use and termination before any work is delivered.
Reproduction
A later copy of an image made by a process that is not the original medium.
Not an original print from the artist's matrix, and not a record photograph.
A halftone dot pattern, no plate mark, and a publisher's credit are the usual signs. Price it as a reproduction until the opposite is shown.
Reproduction right
The right to make copies of an image, one strand of the copyright bundle.
Not the whole of copyright and not title to the object.
It can be licensed or sold on its own. You can grant a poster licence and keep everything else.
Reserve
The confidential minimum below which a lot will not sell.
Not the estimate.
If unmet the lot is bought in, which is a public fact.
Restitution
The return of a work to its rightful owner after theft, looting or unlawful export.
The transfer of the object itself, distinct from a financial settlement in place of it.
Buying a restituted work means reading the settlement documents to confirm every competing claim was extinguished.
Restoration
Returning an object toward a prior appearance.
Distinct from conservation, which stabilises.
Undisclosed restoration affects value more than disclosed.
Restricted appraisal report
The briefer of the two written reporting options, in which the appraiser states rather than summarises, and which may have the client as its only intended user.
Not a lesser opinion. The development work behind it is identical, and the workfile must still support it. What is reduced is what the document explains to a reader.
A narrower promise about who may use it, and the restriction must be conspicuous. An insurer, a court, or an accountant will often refuse one.
Retail replacement value
What it would cost to replace a work with another of similar quality, age, origin, appearance and condition, in the appropriate retail market, within a reasonable time.
The highest of the standard figures, and not fair market value, which is the tax number, and not what you paid.
Name this type of value in the engagement letter when the report is for insurance. Scheduling at fair market value leaves the owner underinsured.
Retainer
A block of hours committed in advance at a rate below the published one.
Not a deposit against a single assignment.
The one arrangement that ordinarily moves a published rate.
Revenue Procedure 96-15
The procedure under which a taxpayer may request an advance Statement of Value from the Internal Revenue Service.
Distinct from an audit referral, which happens after filing. The request goes in before the return, not after.
Available for an item of art appraised at $50,000 or more, on payment of a user fee that the Service updates periodically and takes through Pay.gov, so the figure must be checked rather than remembered. An unfavourable Statement of Value must still be attached to the return.
Right of first refusal
A contract term letting a named party buy a work before the owner accepts anyone else's offer.
A restriction on the owner, not a promise that the work will sell.
Track it and honour it. Galleries use it to control resale, and ignoring one is a breach.
Risk of loss
Which party bears loss if property is damaged or destroyed.
Not title. The two do not always transfer together.
Determines who claims and who eats the loss.
Rush premium
A surcharge where a deadline displaces work already scheduled.
Not a penalty and not a rate change.
Usually avoidable by asking whether a date is achievable before promising it.
S
Salvage
Damaged property to which an insurer becomes entitled after paying a total loss.
Not abandoned property.
You may negotiate to retain it. Ask before settlement.
Schedule
The list of individually stated values attached to an insurance policy.
Distinct from the policy limit and from a blanket limit.
The appraisal exists to produce these figures. Scheduling at fair market value leaves the owner underinsured.
Scheduled coverage
Insurance listing each work at its own stated value.
Distinct from blanket coverage.
Some works are scheduled and the rest left under the blanket. It is not all or nothing.
Scope of work
The type and extent of research and analysis in an assignment.
Chosen, not fixed.
Cannot fall below what the use requires or what peers would do.
Scope of Work Rule
The requirement that an appraiser determine and disclose how much work the assignment needs, and perform at least that much.
The amount of work is not fixed by the fee or by the client's preference. It is set by what is needed to produce a credible result for the stated use.
A client cannot instruct an appraiser to do less than the assignment requires. If someone agrees to, that is the warning sign.
Sealed bid
An offer submitted privately in a sale where no bidder sees any other bid.
Not a live auction. There is no room to read and no chance to increment.
Submit your ceiling, because there is no second round.
Secondary market
Resale after the first sale out of the studio: auction and dealer transactions.
Distinct from the primary market, where the artist and gallery set the price.
Appraised value rests on this evidence. Without it there is little for an appraiser to stand on.
Section 6695A
The Internal Revenue Code provision penalising an appraiser whose appraisal causes a substantial or gross valuation misstatement.
Runs in both directions: an understated estate as much as an overstated donation.
The practical reason a competent report shows its evidence rather than asserting a figure.
Self-storage
A unit rented in a facility built for household goods.
Not specialist art storage, and not a warehouse that issues a receipt and owes a bailee's duty of care. Climate controlled does not mean stable, monitored, or insured for art.
Confirm coverage, access, security, leaks, pests and emergency response before anything goes in. This is where collections quietly fail.
Seller's commission
The percentage a house or gallery deducts from the sale price, paid by the seller.
Not the buyer's premium, which is added on top and paid by the buyer, and not the photography, insurance, withdrawal, storage or shipping charges.
Compare consignments on itemised net proceeds, never on the headline rate.
Settlement statement
The itemised account issued after a sale showing the gross price, the deductions, the credits and the amount payable.
Not the buyer's invoice and not the consignment agreement.
Reconcile it against the contract and against confirmed buyer payment before you close the file.
Shock indicator
A device showing an impact threshold was exceeded in transit.
Binary. Shows that something happened, not what.
Photograph it before opening anything.
Signature
Personalised evidence authenticating work and accepting responsibility.
Need not be ink.
Anyone signing any part of a report accepts responsibility for it.
Significant appraisal assistance
Work contributed by another appraiser on a part of an assignment, usually a category outside the signing appraiser's competence.
Not anonymous subcontracting. The contributor either signs a certification for the part they developed, or is named in the signing appraiser's certification as having provided significant assistance. Note that certified in personal property appraisal ordinarily denotes a designation level awarded by a membership body, not this role.
Either way the reader can see who did what. A report that will not tell you who developed a category is telling you something.
Soft pack
Protective wrapping without a rigid outer container.
A different tool from a travel frame or crate.
Appropriate to some journeys and negligent on others.
Spoliation
The plundering or destruction of art, most often the systematic looting of the wartime period.
Triggers obligations and expectations beyond those of an ordinary theft.
Any sign of it in a provenance stops an institutional acquisition until title is cleared.
Stabilisation
The first intervention, which stops active deterioration without trying to restore appearance.
Not cleaning, not treatment, and not preparation for sale.
When a work is wet, torn, mouldy or flaking, this is the job in front of you. Appearance waits.
Standards Rule
A numbered requirement inside one of the standards, cited in the form SR 8-2.
Distinct from the rules that apply across all work, such as the ethics, competency, record keeping, scope of work and jurisdictional exception rules.
When a report or a reviewer cites SR followed by numbers, they are pointing at a specific requirement you can look up rather than making a general appeal to standards.
State
A distinct stage in the development of a printing matrix.
Not an edition and not a proof.
Different states are different objects for valuation.
Statement of Value
An advance determination the Internal Revenue Service may issue on the value of an item of art before the return reporting the transfer is filed.
Not an audit outcome and not a blanket ruling. The taxpayer who requested it may rely on it for that transfer, and it does not settle the value of other items, other taxpayers, or later years.
Removes uncertainty before filing rather than after, but only on value. It is a valuation review, not a review of deductibility or of the legal substantiation requirements, so a favourable Statement of Value does not save a defective Form 8283. An unfavourable one must still be attached to the return, though the taxpayer may attach support for a different figure alongside it.
Stolen-art database
A register used to record and search stolen and missing works, including the FBI National Stolen Art File and commercial services.
Not a title register and not proof of ownership.
A search before purchase is evidence of diligence. A registration after loss is how a later sale gets flagged. Neither replaces a police report.
Sublimit
A lower ceiling inside a policy that applies to one category, location, peril or kind of loss.
Not the overall limit and not the deductible.
Check the fine art, transit, storage, water, theft and off-premises sublimits before you move or schedule anything.
Subrogation
An insurer's right, after paying, to pursue the party that caused the loss.
Not the insurer's claim against you.
You can destroy it accidentally by signing a release.
Support
The physical structure a work is made on.
Distinct from medium.
Determines conservation options and much of condition vocabulary.
T
Temporary admission
A customs regime permitting entry for exhibition rather than sale.
Not an import.
The wrong declaration produces a seized work and a tax liability.
Theft
The taking of an object without right.
Distinct from mysterious disappearance, which many policies treat differently, and from a title dispute.
Photograph to Object ID, notify insurer and police, and register the work. Delay is how recovery stops being possible.
Tilt indicator
A device showing an object was inverted or tipped beyond a set angle.
Not a shock indicator.
Evidence of handling contrary to instruction.
Title
Legal ownership.
Distinct from possession and from provenance.
A dealer in possession may have no title. That decides what happens if they fail.
Total loss
A loss where the object is destroyed or economically unrecoverable.
Distinct from constructive total loss, where repair is possible but uneconomic.
Which applies changes what is owed and who keeps the remains.
Transit insurance
Coverage while property is in movement only.
Distinct from nail-to-nail and wall-to-wall.
Leaves gaps at both ends of a journey.
Travel frame
A rigid working frame protecting a work in transit.
Not a presentation frame and not a crate.
Specifying the wrong one is the commonest packing error.
Trustee
A fiduciary holding property for beneficiaries under a trust.
Distinct from an executor, who administers an estate.
Different authority, different documents, different timeline.
U
UCC financing statement
The public filing, usually a UCC-1, by which a consignor perfects an interest in work left with a dealer for sale.
Not the consignment contract, which binds only the parties. Under Uniform Commercial Code section 9-319(a), as against the dealer's creditors the dealer is treated as owning goods in its possession.
File before the work leaves you. Many states also have artist-dealer consignment statutes that may apply instead, and auction consignments are outside the rule, so ask counsel which regime governs.
Ultraviolet examination
Inspection under ultraviolet light, where retouching and later material fluoresce differently from original paint and varnish.
A surface and near-surface screen only. It does not replace infrared, X-radiography or a conservator's report.
A useful first look for undisclosed restoration, with real limits: fresh varnish or grime can mask retouching, and old retouching can fluoresce like the original. Absence of dark patches is not a clean bill of health.
Unclaimed property
Work left with a gallery, framer or warehouse and never collected.
Not a windfall and not automatically abandoned. In New York a framer who has done chargeable work has a lien and may sell only by following a statutory procedure with written notice and a right to redeem. Warehouses and carriers fall under different rules.
Do not sell or dispose of anything left with you without counsel. Selling wrongly is conversion.
Unfinished work
A work the artist did not release as complete, whether by intention, interruption or death.
Not a study, not a rejected state, and not material without status.
Inventory it separately. Do not finish, sign, edition, exhibit or discard another person's unfinished work before reading what they left behind.
Update
A new opinion of value on property appraised before.
A new assignment with its own effective date, not an amendment to the old one.
Faster and cheaper than the first because the record already exists.
USPAP
The standards governing appraisal development and reporting in the US.
There is no USPAP-certified appraiser or appraisal. The standards certify nobody.
The acceptable claim is USPAP compliant, evidenced by the signed certification.
V
Valuation clause
The policy provision that says how the insurer calculates what it pays after a loss.
Not the schedule, the declared value or the appraisal. Those supply numbers. This decides what is done with them.
Read it before the policy is bound. It is where agreed value, replacement basis, market basis and every limiting formula actually live.
Valuation service
Any service pertaining to an aspect of value, performed by anyone.
Broader than appraisal practice.
Determines whether appraisal obligations attach at all.
Value
An opinion of worth at a given time.
Always an opinion, never a fact. Distinct from cost and price.
Always qualified by a type. An unqualified number means nothing.
VARA
The US statute conferring limited rights of attribution and integrity.
Narrow, subject to waiver.
Particular consequences for site-specific and building-attached work.
W
Waitlist
A gallery's queue for allocating available work.
Not a contract unless the document says so.
Creates no enforceable right absent writing.
Waiver of subrogation
An agreement that an insurer will not pursue a named party after paying.
Routinely requested by vendors.
Removes a recovery route. Coordinate with your insurer before agreeing.
Wall-to-wall
Loan-period coverage running from the moment the object leaves the lender until it is returned, transit at both ends included.
Generally used as a synonym for nail-to-nail rather than as a lesser grade, and distinct from transit-only cover, which ends on delivery. The label is not the contract.
Read the policy wording rather than the phrase. The commonest real gap in a collection is the interval between two policies, not the phrase used to describe one.
Warehouse receipt
The document issued for goods placed in storage.
Not a bill of lading and not a contract of carriage.
A different legal regime governs entirely.
Warranty of authenticity
A contractual promise that the stated authorship is correct.
Not a certificate of authenticity, which is a document with no remedy attached.
Keep the catalogue, the invoice and the conditions of sale. Find the warranty period and what it actually gives you before you buy.
Warranty of title
The seller's undertaking that they can transfer the object free of undisclosed claims.
Not a warranty of authenticity and not a certificate of authenticity.
Auction conditions of sale often shorten and cap it. Read the period and the remedy before you bid or consign.
Wear and tear
The gradual decline of an object through normal use, handling and age.
Expected deterioration, and specifically excluded from policies that respond only to sudden and accidental loss.
There is no claim for it. Handling and a stable environment are the only remedies.
Withdrawn lot
A lot pulled from a sale before it is offered.
Not bought in and not unsold, because it was never offered.
Record no result and do not infer the reason without evidence.
Work made for hire
A copyright status in which the employer or commissioning party counts as the author instead of the maker.
Automatic only for employees acting within their employment. A commissioned work qualifies only if it falls in one of nine statutory categories and both parties sign a written agreement saying so. A commissioned painting, sculpture or photograph is not in those categories.
If a commissioner needs the rights, they must take a written assignment. Settle it before the work is made, because afterwards it is a negotiation.
Workfile
The documentation supporting an appraiser's analyses, opinions and conclusions, assembled and retained by the appraiser.
Required to exist before the report is issued, and required for an oral report as much as a written one. It is not the report, and the client does not ordinarily receive it.
A number without a workfile behind it cannot survive a challenge. Ask whether one exists before you rely on a figure given over the phone.
Workfile fee
A fixed charge covering the setup and retention of the file behind an assignment.
Distinct from the hourly rate.
Every assignment carries one, because every assignment generates a file that must be kept.
Workshop of
A qualifier meaning work produced in the artist's workshop under supervision.
Distinct from circle of, which implies no supervision.
Materially different from an autograph work.