Managing Your Estate as an Artist with Kelly Juhasz

Larissa:

Introduction:

We hear over and over in the news about issues surrounding the estates of artists and how family members or caretakers are having control over the artwork and sales. There are lawsuits, family discord, issues with heirs mismanaging the remaining collection of artworks and stories of others involved in the artist’s careers or at the end of their lives taking advantage of the artist’s success.

Joining me today is Kelly Juhasz, principal of Fine Art Appraisal and Services, to talk about how artists can better plan for their own legacy to ensure that their reputations and remaining artworks are handled properly and reduce the opportunity for mismanagement.

1.  What is artist legacy planning?

Artist legacy planning and management services is about making a commitment to keep the artists' work and vision alive either into perpetuity or to achieve a specific goal with a set timeline.

2.  How does your company, Fine Art Appraisal and Services provide artist legacy planning?

Our legacy services target and benefit small to medium sized artists' estates and families of the artists. It’s about dealing with their reputations and achieved recognition and to ensure that both continue to maintain the levels at which they were when the artist was living.

We work directly with the artist to set up how their estate and remaining body of work will be managed. I’m not going to get into the various formal legal structures such as a foundation, formal estate or trust, or even opening an artist’s museum, nor will I discuss the tax advantages or disadvantages in this talk as they are quite lengthy and require outside expertise. I’m not a lawyer or an accountant but we do work with them as required depending on the artist’s situation.

3.  Why should artist’s care about what happens to their work after they pass?

Larissa, in most cases, the artwork and papers of an artist are bequeathed to a family member. Sometimes, it automatically becomes the personal property of a spouse or a child of the artist. Sometimes, everything is left to an executor with no experience or interest in the art world.

I’ve worked with numerous families of artists and external executors who find themselves in a situation whereby they are suddenly the caretaker of hundreds of pieces of artwork. This burden can be overwhelming and have significant expenses, taxes or revenue implications not to mention emotional and moral challenges. It can time an exorbitant amount of time to work with artwork that an executor may not have any desire or capacity to do.

By planning in advance and starting their own legacy planning, the artist can specify how they would like their work to be shown in the future and start to build the mechanisms required to manage their artwork, their papers, their reputation and their life’s contribution.

Often dealing with the artwork of a loved-one brings up sensitive family matters and complex family dynamics and relationships. Advance planning can help to provide objectivity by bringing the attention and focus back to the artwork and a creating a clear set of objectives and goals that are achievable and whereby everyone involved is comfortable and knows what will happen.

4.  What are some of the biggest issues that you’ve seen in working with artist’s estates.

The two biggest issues are caring for the collection and the expenses in managing the collection.

Many artists are incredibly disciplined in their studio management practices. They record each piece they create in a database. They keep good records of sales and exhibitions. Their studios are environmentally sound – the artwork is properly stored, maintained at a constant temperature, the artwork is kept clean. Finished pieces are separate from unfinished or work that the artist isn’t happy with. And they’ve signed, dated and titled their work.

But many are not. Most of the artists and artist’s estates that I’ve worked with are not organized. The artwork is not in a database. The numerous finished pieces are not signed, dated or titled. The artwork isn’t  properly stored as they are stacked up in a basement or in a studio – that may or may not have been dry or protected from fluctuations in temperatures year after year.

This leaves a lot of work to be done and all this work will come with fees attached. Fees for creating a database, fees for creating an authentication process, fees for cleaning and restoration. Many tasks that the family members don’t realize.

It also depends on how successful the artist was when they were alive and how their work was exhibited, marketed and managed. In this case, the artwork left by the artist is vitally important to their legacy and to all their collectors over the years who invested and enjoyed their creativity.

So, the artist can assist while they are living. They can plan to deal with their entire estate before they pass, or they can better prepare others to manage it afterwards. 

This also requires money – the second issue I notice. So financial considerations need to be planned as well.

Buying artwork is easy. Selling artwork is hard. Art doesn’t typically sell quickly, and it is subject to changes in consumer tastes and decorating styles; the economy and the level of disposable income available for the purchase of art; the cost of materials; and the supply and demand of the artist’s work.

And on the other hand, it’s important, depending on the artist’s demand, not to over saturate the market with available artwork. So becomes a challenge to decide how to release the artwork onto the market. This type of marketing and sales, and sourcing of exhibitions and press coverage needs to be planned out to meet the goals and objectives of the artist’s legacy and their wishes – and what’s even possible. 

5.  What are some of the services that would fall under artist legacy planning and management services?

 We could offer the following for our legacy clients:

• Create a database of all artwork left in the studio and from known past sales and exhibitions that could be transitioned into a catalogue raisonne or support an art expert or a scholar to create a catalogue or book.
• Research to update or create a formal biography, resumé and exhibition record of the artist. This could reposition the artist in a historical context or help the art market or institutions rediscover the artist’s contribution to a particular movement or style of artwork.
• Publish articles about the artist or be available to provide information to writers and academics about the artist for other authors.
• Organize the artist’s archives which may include their notebooks, writings, correspondence between the artist and suppliers, colleagues, museums, gallerists, family members, collectors, re art market reviewers. Organize any existing academic research already created of the artist along with photographs. We look to find sources of inspiration that the artist used and attempt to use all these materials to help document their creative process. Creating an archive puts into perspective the artist’s life and their career along with their artwork.
• Create a plan to provide access to archival materials for research or for sale, in some cases.
• Plan for conservation and preservation
• Make arrangements for storage for the artworks.
• Plan public exhibitions and sales of the artworks.
• Facilitate the lending of artworks to museums and other institutions.
• Facilitate the donation of artworks to museums and other institutions.
• Facilitate the sale of artwork and manage the release of available artworks to the market.
• Work with other professionals such as lawyers and accountants and family members to plan for the artist’s legacy in a formal manner.

We work with the artist to customize a plan and strategy that works with them and to their budget. The art market is competitive and therefore planned efforts and tasks must have the opportunity to be successful. We want to ensure that we prioritize the efforts so that together, we can be successful.

6.  Why would an artist want outside professional services to do this? Can they not do this themselves?

Many artists don’t want to deal with the administration of their own artwork or studios. They are interested in the creation of art not the business aspects. Many artists are represented by dealers who manage many of these aspects, but many are not represented or not represented any longer. They may still work with dealers in different countries or cities, but these partnerships do not include the tasks of legacy building or future preparations. They are mainly concerned with current sales and the flow of new works onto the markets.

7.  What can living artists do to start to prepare for their own legacy?

• Start a database of all the artwork in the studio or having been exhibited or previously sold if one hasn’t been established already.
• Sign all work that isn’t signed that is considered finished.
• Separate or even destroy all work that isn’t suitable for sale or that you may not want to enter the marketplace. These are choices where it’s best that artists make and not family members or outside professionals.
• Collect all past sales records, exhibitions and dates, all reviews and catalogues or brochures.
• Select some photographs of yourself alone and with friends and family, at exhibitions or in the studio to use for publicity.
• Think about what you would want done with your artwork after you pass.
• Call in a professional to assist.

8.  Are you available for artists to reach out to you for preliminary discussions?

Yes, certainly. We are always available to assist and answer questions.

9.  Where can they reach you?

[email protected]

or call the office at 416-929-7193

Visit our website: www.fineartappraisalandservices.com

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