Your art will outlive you. Its story can too.
Record the art in your home on Philotheka, free: who made it, what it is called and why it was kept, under a number that stays with it for good.
Why record it
Who made it, where it hung, why it was kept: that is what gets lost first, often on the day a house is cleared and nobody is left to ask.
A record on Philotheka keeps its title, its maker and its story under a permanent number. The house may be sold and the people who knew the artwork may be gone; the record stays.
What each artwork gets
- A permanent number.
- A label with a QR code, to print and put on its back. Whoever turns the artwork over later can find its record, if the record is public.
- A record of what you know, in your own words, with up to 12 photographs.
- Its exhibitions, added over time, and since when it has been in your care.
How
- Photograph it.
- Write what you know: who made it, its title if it has one, and one sentence about where it hung or why it was kept.
- Print its label and put it on the back.
You do not need to know everything. Add more whenever you remember more, and then do the same for the next artwork.
Public or private
A record is public unless you make it private. A public record shows the photographs, what you wrote about the artwork, the country where it is and the names of any collections you put it in. It never shows your name or your email address. Until one of your records has been approved, a person at Philotheka looks at each record you make public before it appears; after that, your records appear as soon as you save them.
If you would rather not show what you own, make the record private, for €5 once. Everything is kept, but it leaves the archive, and its address and QR code show nothing to anyone else. You can make it public again, and a private record has to be public before it can be offered for a new home.
When you let it go
If the day comes when you cannot keep it, you can give it a new home through Philotheka. You give it, for nothing, to someone who will look after it. People apply and tell you why they would like it and where it would be kept; you read what they write and choose.
It goes to the person you choose, not to the highest bidder: there is no bidding and no price. It costs you nothing; the person you choose pays Philotheka a €20 transfer fee.
Its record goes with it, so its new home knows its story.
After you
Name a successor: one person who may take over your records on Philotheka if you die or can no longer decide. Nothing moves until a person at Philotheka has checked.
It is not a will. It gives your successor the records here, not ownership of the artworks, so what you knew about each one is not lost with you.
On each record you can also leave a private wish for the artwork's future. Nobody else reads it before a handover, unless a check for misuse holds it for a person at Philotheka.
What it costs
Recording is free, as many artworks as you own. So are printing their labels, giving an artwork a new home and naming a successor.
If you want them: a private record, €5 once; extended documentation, up to 30 photographs, €5 once per record. When an artwork is given a new home, the person who receives it pays the €20 transfer fee; when your records pass to your successor, they pay a €50 handover fee, once.