A Guide to Condition Reports for Art Collectors
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Key Takeaways
Condition reports are essential for art collectors, providing a detailed analysis of an artwork’s physical state and helping to protect its value and longevity. These reports, created by professionals, document the artwork’s condition, including any damages, conservation history, and preventive care measures. By tracking issues such as fading, foxing, or tears, condition reports allow buyers and sellers to make informed decisions about valuation and preservation. They also support provenance claims and are critical for insurance purposes, ensuring accurate assessments before and after events like transport or exhibition. Not all condition issues necessitate restoration, but understanding an artwork’s condition provides clarity for future care. Comprehensive condition reports ultimately safeguard both the aesthetic and financial investment in art collections.
Condition reports are extremely important within the art world for a number of reasons. Understanding the precise condition of an artwork aids in providing an accurate valuation of a piece’s market value and reduces the risk of disputes in sales and acquisitions. Furthermore, documenting an artwork’s condition specifically guides preventive measures and future conservation of a piece, which not only protects the longevity of an artwork, but also aids in supporting provenance claims and verification.
What is a Condition Report?
A condition report is a detailed document that outlines the current condition of an artwork and its accompanying structures based on an extensive examination by a professional. This report details any changes or damages to the artwork since its last condition report and effectively guides collectors, conservators, and curators in identifying and implementing necessary care and management measures.
Condition reports should be created by qualified professionals who have the expertise to accurately assess and document the care and conservation of the specific materials they are examining. These reports should be made and updated regularly by those such as art conservators, appraisers, or experienced gallery staff and are essential after any major event such as exhibitions, transport, loans or conservation work.
Key Components of a Condition Report
There are several key components to generating a comprehensive condition report. Firstly, identifying the artwork through title, artist, date and dimensions establishes and verifies the artwork in question. Further identifying the accompanying structures such as the materials used for framing, mounting and storage enables future reports to adapt conservation methods if needed.
Providing a detailed condition description is a key aspect of a condition report. Noting damage or wear that is distinct from an artwork’s original condition such as fading, foxing, cockling or tears must be recorded. It is vital to provide dated photographic documentation of the front and back of an artwork in order to monitor any decline or new damages to an artwork.
Including an artwork’s conservation history is also essential in providing an exhaustive condition report. Having knowledge of prior conservation methods allows professionals to track changes in an artwork’s condition and monitor ongoing issues which can highlight restrictions or faults in the current measures. Subsequently, this ensures alterations or updates to the preservation or display of an artwork and enables the provenance and value of a piece to be better protected.
The result of a detailed condition report provides recommendations for the future preservation of an artwork or collection. A comprehensive analysis of an artwork’s existing condition and any damages allows specific instructions and preventive measures to be advised. These are essential in long-term strategies being implemented to ensure an artwork’s longevity and future preservation.
Case Studies: Effective Use of Condition Reports
Condition reports are used to effectively ascertain the value of artworks and how to best look after them. Examples of high-profile artworks that have been damaged due to poor conservation demonstrate the importance of condition reports in protecting the longevity and provenance of collections.
The way prints are created and stored particularly impact their condition. Andy Warhol created a huge amount of his works very quickly in The Factory and some of his prints, such as his Mao and Marilyn Monroe series, highlight how his screenprinting process would often lead to the ink fading and cracking. Keith Haring also produced a lot of his work on unconventional surfaces, such as his work in the 1980s created on blank advertisements in the subway. As Haring was not primarily concerned with preservation, these works suffered from condition issues such as fading and damage to the paper.
David Hockney’s artwork can also suffer from condition issues due to the materials and techniques he utilises. For example, his experimentalism from the late 1980s of faxing his art electronically resulted in his images being produced on much lower quality paper. In particular, fax machines in the 1980s and 1990s utilised thermal paper, which was highly susceptible to fading, discolouration, and physical deterioration over time.
Condition reports inevitably vary between artists and artworks, often due to the age and conservation of the work. Whilst Warhol, Haring and Hockney’s older works suffer condition issues, more contemporary pieces should not face as many problems. For example, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Odours Of Punt (2024) came straight from the publisher, so if there were any condition issues, it would likely be the result of the printing process rather than a condition issue.
However, whilst condition reports are essential in the valuation of prints, there are times when the artwork’s condition aids in proving its authenticity. If there is discoloration, such as in the cases of Warhol or older works by Hockney, it is not often recommended to re-screen these prints, as it would negatively impact the provenance of these works and bring into question their authenticity. Consequently, condition reports are crucial in providing transparency to an artwork, rather than necessarily dictating restoration, to ensure greater future preservation of a piece.
Glossary of Condition Terminology
Abrasion – an alteration of the surface of a work caused by friction with another object.
Accretion – a build up of material on the surface of the work. Make notes as to what this substance is, because it’s not always dust or dirt.
Bleeding – the spread of pigment after the work has been created. Usually related to water damage.
Check – an opening of a piece of wood that occurs along the grain. It is smaller than a split in the wood but usually precludes a larger split.
Chip – a broken piece of material on the work, usually fully or partially separated from the work.Cleavage – an area of small cracks in the work separating the underlying material of the work.
Cockling – two or more parallel waves on a piece of un-creased paper.
Corrosion – loss to a portion of the work where a foreign agent has caused a chemical reaction.
Crack – a linear or planar fault in a surface. This can also be a break in the surface of the work that does not involve loss of material.
Crackle – an area of perpendicular cracks that does not involve cleavage.
Craquelure – an intricate accumulation of crackle often caused by climate changes.
Crevice – a narrow but deep type of crackle.
Dig – a dent that includes loss or displacement.
Dishing (a.k.a. Draw) – a warping or disruption of the surface of a canvas caused by unequal tension along the canvas’ stretcher.
Disjoin – a separation of elements or portions of an object, in which the separation can be complete or incomplete.
Embrittlement – the process by which a work becomes more brittle, usually because of exposure to heat or extremely arid climates.
Erosion – a loss of material, usually due to abrasion or embrittlement.
Foxing – corrosion of paper, often resulting from mould spores or rusting iron in the paper’s pulp.
Gouge – an area where material has been lost due to a scooping abrasion.
Lacuna (a.k.a. Loss) – where a portion of the material of a work has gone missing.
Rift – like crackle, but wider.
Run – where foreign viscous matter has dried on the work.
Spatter – dried foreign matter splattered on the surface of a work.
Split – a check that runs the entire length of a wood’s grain.
