Gallery stock: rotation, storage and insurance when starting out

01Inventorying and documenting each work without exception

The first rule of gallery stock management is that every work that enters your space, whether purchased outright or on consignment, must be inventoried and documented immediately. Not the next day, not next week, not when you have time: immediately. This discipline, demanding in the first weeks, will quickly become automatic and will save you hours of later reconstruction.

For each work, you must record: the artist's name, the title of the work, the year of creation, the medium and technique, the dimensions (height, width, depth for sculptures, duration for videos), the weight if relevant, the inventory number you assign, the status (gallery property or consignment), the agreed sale price, the applicable commission, the date of entry, the provenance (directly from the artist, from another gallery, from a collector), and the condition at the time of receipt.

Photographs are an essential element of documentation. Each work must be photographed from at least three angles: front, detail, and in situ within the space. These photographs serve for internal management (quickly identifying a work in the reserve), for sales (sending to potential collectors), and for insurance (proof of the work's condition at reception). Galerie Kamel Mennour has a professional photography studio in its premises, but a good quality smartphone and correct lighting are sufficient for a young gallery.

The condition report is a document describing the physical state of the work at the time of its reception: scratches, dents, paper yellowing, paint cracking, stains, damaged frame. This document, ideally signed by both parties (gallery and artist or lender), constitutes the reference in the event of a dispute over possible subsequent damage. Galerie Marian Goodman produces a condition report for every work that passes through its spaces, including works by its own artists.

02Organising the storage reserve

The storage reserve is a space that the young gallery owner often discovers with dismay, because they had not anticipated its importance. You may exhibit a dozen works in your gallery space, but your total stock includes non-exhibited works, works awaiting delivery, fair returns, unsold works from previous exhibitions and works that your artists have entrusted to you for future presentations. Within a few months, you may find yourself with fifty, eighty or even one hundred works to store.

The storage space must meet minimum conservation conditions. Temperature should be stable, ideally between eighteen and twenty-two degrees. Relative humidity should sit between forty-five and fifty-five per cent. The space must be protected from direct sunlight, rising damp (beware of basements) and pests. A thermo-hygrometer, costing around twenty euros, allows you to monitor these parameters and react if they drift.

The arrangement of works in the reserve deserves particular attention. Paintings should be stored vertically, face to face or back to back, separated by acid-free cardboard or foam dividers. Works on paper should be stored flat in plan chests, protected by acid-free tissue paper. Sculptures should be placed on stable surfaces, wrapped in bubble wrap or foam, and identified by a visible label. Stacking, where works are piled on top of one another, is the primary cause of reserve damage: a painting that slips and falls takes others with it.

Galerie Templon, which manages a considerable stock of large-scale works, has specialist warehouses in the Paris region. For a young gallery, the solution is often more modest: a fitted back room, a cupboard converted into a small reserve, or a storage space shared with other galleries. The essential thing is that the space is clean, dry, secure and organised.

03Managing rotation between exhibition and reserve

Rotation is the art of animating your stock by alternating the works present in the exhibition space. A gallery whose hanging never changes sends a message of stagnation to regular collectors and artists. Conversely, a gallery that regularly renews its presentation stimulates repeat visits and creates a sense of urgency: the hesitant collector knows that the work they spotted may no longer be there on their next visit.

The rhythm of rotation depends on your exhibition model. If you operate through monographic or thematic exhibitions, with a schedule of approximately six exhibitions per year, rotation happens naturally with each exhibition change. If you operate with a permanent hanging (continuous group show), you should plan partial rotations every four to six weeks, replacing a third or half of the works.

Rotation is also a commercial management tool. Works that have not found a buyer after two exhibitions merit reflection: is the price too high, is the format ill-suited to your clientele, has the work been sufficiently well presented? Before returning a work to the artist or consigning it to the reserve for an indefinite period, try presenting it in a different context: a fair, a thematic hanging, a targeted proposal to a collector whose tastes you know. Galerie Semiose is recognised for its ability to find the right moment and right context for each work, sometimes after several attempts.

A rotation tracking system, even in the form of a simple spreadsheet, allows you to know how long each work has been in stock, how many times it has been exhibited, and whether it has generated interest without resulting in a sale. This information is valuable for adjusting your commercial strategy and for reporting to your artists on how their works are being presented and promoted.

04Insuring stock: declared values and regular updates

Stock insurance is a topic we addressed in a previous guide, but it deserves deeper treatment from a stock management perspective. The value of your stock is not fixed: it evolves over the months according to entries (new consignments, outright purchases), exits (sales, returns to artists) and revaluations (increases in an artist's catalogue prices, decreases in another's).

Your insurer asks you to declare the total value of your stock, either as a maximum overall value present at any time, or work by work. This declaration must be updated regularly, at least twice a year, and ideally with each significant change (receipt of a major consignment, sale of a major piece, preparation for a fair with stock temporarily concentrated in one location).

A frequently overlooked point: the distinction between sale value and insured value. The sale value is the catalogue price of the work, the one you offer to collectors. The insured value is the amount you declare to the insurer and on which compensation will be calculated in the event of a claim. For works purchased outright, the insured value generally corresponds to the purchase price or the sale price according to the contract terms. For consignment works, the insured value corresponds to the sale price agreed with the artist, as this is the amount you will need to reimburse in the event of loss or destruction. Galerie Almine Rech, like all professional galleries, clearly distinguishes these two values in its stock management and insurance declarations.

05Dead stock: identifying and acting

Every gallery, even the most dynamic, accumulates dead stock over time: works that do not sell, that do not generate collector interest, and that occupy storage space without generating revenue. Dead stock is both a financial problem (capital tied up for outright purchases, occupation of costly storage space) and a curatorial one (a gallery whose reserve is filled with unsold works loses credibility with its artists).

The first step is to identify dead stock. A work that has been in stock for more than eighteen months without being sold, exhibited or actively proposed deserves to be classified as dormant stock. Beyond twenty-four months, if no action has been taken, it becomes dead stock.

Solutions for managing dead stock are multiple. For consignment works, the simplest solution is to return them to the artist, explaining frankly that you have not succeeded in placing them. This return is not a failure: it is an act of responsible management that frees space and allows the artist to entrust the work to another gallery that may have a better network for that type of piece. For outright purchases, the calculation is more delicate: a price reduction, a discounted sale at a fair, or a donation to an institution (which offers a tax advantage) are options to consider.

Galerie Nathalie Obadia practises rigorous stock management, with regular reviews that identify pieces requiring action. This discipline, applied from the earliest years of activity, prevents the accumulation of an unwieldy stock that ends up becoming a burden rather than an asset.

06Digital tools for stock management

Digital tools have considerably simplified stock management for galleries, even the smallest. Specialist software such as Artlogic, ArtBase and GallerySoft offer features tailored to the specific needs of galleries: inventory with photographs, artwork records, consignment tracking, generation of certificates of authenticity, stock reports by artist or by period. These tools, whose monthly cost sits between 50 and 200 euros, represent a modest investment relative to the time they save and the reliability they provide.

For galleries on very tight budgets, a well-structured spreadsheet (Google Sheets or Excel) can fulfil the same basic functions: one tab per artist, one row per work, columns for all essential information (title, dimensions, price, status, location, entry date, exit date). The important thing is that the tool is used daily and that the information is reliable.

Artedusa partner galleries have a digital space where they can present their stock online to an audience of international collectors, which constitutes both an additional sales channel and a management tool: each online work is documented, photographed and described, automatically enriching your internal database and facilitating the updating of your inventory.