A gallery's inventory is not stock. Each work is unique, most of it is not owned by the gallery, its value depends on a documented history, and the same piece may be simultaneously on a wall, promised to a collector and committed to a touring show. Generic inventory software models none of that, which is why most galleries end up running on spreadsheets and memory.
The failure is almost always consignment and provenance. Works arrive on consignment with agreed splits and return dates, move between gallery, art fair, storage and a client's home for approval, and the record of where a piece is and who is owed what lives in one person's head. When that person is on leave during a fair, the gallery cannot answer the two questions that matter: where is it, and what is it worth to us if it sells.
Judge any vendor on these, us included. A proposal that skips them is quoting for a different, easier project.
Medium, dimensions, year, edition and state, condition history and high-resolution images — a catalogue record, not a product listing.
Ownership and exhibition history maintained as a chain. Provenance is a material part of a work's value and gaps are expensive.
Terms, commission splits, consignment periods and return dates per work, with a running artist statement either side can trust.
Gallery, storage, fair, framer, on approval with a client, in transit — with dates, so nothing is lost between venues.
Generated, numbered and reissued in a controlled way, because an ad-hoc COA undermines the thing it is meant to prove.
Password-protected selections for a named collector, with pricing shown or withheld per viewer — galleries rarely publish prices publicly.
The core register of works, with bulk import from existing spreadsheets, which is where every gallery's data currently lives.
Plan shows, assign works, generate checklists, wall labels and price lists, and keep a record after the show closes.
Holds and reservations with expiry, invoices with commission splits calculated, and part-payment tracking.
Interests, acquisition history and contact log, so an approach is informed rather than generic.
A gallery site that draws from the same records, so the wall, the website and the price list never disagree.
Crating, transit and insured-value records with condition reports before and after movement.
Sales by artist and period, unsold inventory ageing, consignments approaching return date, and amounts owed to artists.
The tools this industry already runs on.
Chosen per project, not per fashion.
Image handling is the technical heart of this and it is routinely underestimated. Galleries hold very large photography and expect it to load instantly for a collector on a phone; getting derivative generation, colour fidelity and access control right is a real body of work, not a plugin. Migrating years of existing spreadsheet records is the other half.
Yes, and it is usually the first phase. Most galleries have years of history across several spreadsheets with inconsistent naming. We map and import it, flag conflicts for you to resolve rather than guessing, and keep the original files as a reference. Expect to spend real time on decisions only your team can make.
That is the core of it. Each work carries its consignment terms, commission split, consignment period and return date, and the artist ledger updates automatically on a sale so statements are generated rather than assembled.
Yes, via private viewing rooms — a curated selection behind a link or password for a named collector, with pricing visible or hidden per viewer, and a record of what was viewed and when.
Both. Multi-location and art-fair tracking are built into location handling, which is precisely when spreadsheets break down — a work at a fair in another city while a client asks to see it at the gallery.
Yes. The website reads from the same records, so a sold work stops being advertised as available, and exhibition pages build themselves from the show you already planned internally.
Arts & Culture
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