Sales from the Artist's Estate

This is about resources for those needing to think about the disposal of art from an Estate after the death of an artist and/or art collector.

Having lost my mother recently, I'm in that rather odd phase where you become super sensitive to all mentions of death.

This morning it was the passing of Bill Turnbull - and the shock of realising he was younger than me! 

Followed by looking at the Mall Galleries website to check the dates of an exhibition - and noticing that the first thing I see is a new section of their website about sales of art from Artists Estates. 

(It's on the home page at the moment - but it's unclear which section you can find it in future as there are two possible options)

This appears to be publicising a feature/service that a small number of deceased members of the societies which make up the Federation of British Artists enjoy. It's certainly NOT including artwork by every artist who has died. Many of course will have made alternative arrangements. But there is a selection of artists whose work continues to be available online.

It occurs to me there's scope to make this into a more developed aspect of the offerings by the Mall Galleries. 

• Almost every exhibition I go to has news of between one and three artists who have died in the past year. 
• This is in part because many of the members of the various artists which make up the nine national Art Societies which form the Federation of British Artists (FBA) which runs the Mall Galleries tend to be rather old.

It's also a well known fact that many artists

• tend to bury their heads in the sand when it comes to thinking about disposal of their art after their death
• AND are not very good at making arrangements in advance for the disposal of their art after their death. Who should do it - and how it should be done. 

It's one thing to appoint Executors - as we all do - but many artists also need a specific Executor appointed to handle their art.

I've been well aware of this issue of the Art Legacy for some time. Hence a major section on my Art Business Info for Artists website which covers this topic - of which more below.....

The Art Legacy | Art Business Info for Artists