How to Write a Condition Report That Protects You

Every gallery eventually has the conversation where a work is damaged and nobody can say when. The artist thinks it left the studio perfect. The shipper says it arrived that way. The collector says it was like that when it was delivered. A condition report is how that conversation ends in a minute rather than a month. When to write one Four moments, and skipping any of them creates the gap somebody will argue in: On arrival , whether from an artist, a shipper, or another gallery Before it leaves for a fair, a client's home on approval, or a photographer On return from any of those At sale , as part of what the buyer receives The pairs matter more than the individual reports. Arrival and departure bracket your custody. Without both, you cannot show a work left in the state it arrived. What goes in it The work, unambiguously. Artist, title, year, medium, dimensions, edition number. Enough that the report cannot be attached to a different piece later. The date, and who examined it. A report nobody signed is an opinion. Condition by area. Work through it methodically rather than describing an overall impression: surface, edges and corners, verso, frame or mount, glazing, and any signature or inscription. A structure means you notice things you would otherwise skim past. Photographs. Overall, then close ups of anything noted, with something for scale. Photograph the verso too — damage often shows there first. Wording that survives a dispute Describe, do not diagnose. "A 3cm horizontal scuff, lower left quadrant, 5cm from the edge" is a fact. "Minor shipping damage" is a conclusion, an assumption about cause, and a judgement about severity, none of which you can support. Be specific about location and size. "Some wear to the frame" is not a report; it is a note to yourself that you will not be able to interpret in a year. And record what is normal for the work. Craquelure on an older painting, deckle edges on paper, a deliberately unfinished surface — noting these as present and expected stops somebody flagging them later as new damage. Give one to the buyer A condition report at the point of sale is not an admission of anything. It is a statement of what the buyer is receiving, and it means a claim six months later has to argue with a document rather than with a memory. Galleries that do this routinely find they are asked for it, and that being able to produce it immediately reads as seriousness rather than caution. Keep them with the work A condition report in an email thread is lost. Attached to the piece in your records, alongside its provenance and its images, it is there when somebody asks — which is usually years later, and usually urgently.