A gallery does not sell objects: it sells work. And in most cases it has not bought that work, because it does not own it. This difference, which sounds like a technicality, changes what you can ask for, what you will pay and who you turn to if something goes wrong.
What separates a gallery from an antique dealer
An antique dealer buys and resells. Their craft is the find —spotting the piece before anyone else and knowing what it is— and their business is turnover. What they sell has had an owner before, almost always several, and the question that decides a purchase is where it came from.
A gallery, in the primary market, does not buy: it represents. The work still belongs to the artist while it hangs on the gallery wall. What the gallery brings is the programme —who it shows, alongside whom and in what order—, the exhibition, the text that places the work, and a list of collectors that took years to build. Here the question that decides a purchase is not where the piece comes from, but who the gallery represents and since when.
Some houses do both, and that is not a contradiction: several of the best Spanish galleries sustain their contemporary programme on a holding of old master drawings. What defines them is not what they keep in the back, but what they put on the wall.
Primary and secondary: two businesses under one sign
The primary market is work coming up for sale for the first time, from the studio to the gallery. The price is set by gallery and artist together and is not openly negotiable: cutting it for one buyer damages the price for the next, so a serious gallery would rather not sell than break the list. The usual commission in Spain runs between 40% and 50% of the final price, and covers the space, installation, insurance, catalogue, fairs and production.
The secondary market is work that has had an owner before. Here the gallery acts as a dealer: it mediates between an owner and a buyer, normally on consignment, and the commission is a good deal lower —from 10% to 30%, falling as the figure rises—. This is where the historical avant-garde and the work of dead artists moves, and where provenance matters as much as it does in antiques.
Always know which of the two you are in. It determines whether the price is list or negotiation, whether the artist's resale right applies, and what documentation it makes sense to ask for.
What documentation you can demand
All of it, and in writing. A gallerist who knows their trade answers this without discomfort; discomfort at any of these points is already an answer.
- An invoice that describes the work, not one that mentions it: artist, title, year, medium, support and dimensions. If the written description does not match what the piece turns out to be, there is a discrepancy between what was contracted and what was delivered. An invoice reading «contemporary oil» protects nobody.
- A certificate of authenticity, and above all who signs it. A certificate from the seller themselves is worth whatever their name is worth; one from the artist, their representing gallery or the foundation managing their estate is another matter. Paper without a recognisable signature certifies nothing.
- Full edition details if the work is multiple: number and total edition, artist's proofs counted separately, and whether the plate or matrix has been cancelled. It is what separates a collector's lithograph from a poster. Set out in the prints and drawings guide.
- Provenance, in the secondary market. It is almost never complete, and that is normal; what marks out a serious house is that it declares the gaps instead of papering over them with «important European collection».
- Condition and interventions: what restoration the piece has had, when, and with what report. In twentieth-century work, also whether the frame or mount is the one the artist chose.
Consignment: what you sign when you leave work on deposit
If you are the one handing work to a gallery, what you sign is not a sale: it is a deposit. Ownership stays yours until the piece sells, which is why the contract has to be clear on five things.
- Exactly which work, with photographs and its condition on arrival.
- For how long, and what happens when the term expires.
- What commission, on what price, and with which costs already included.
- Who insures the piece while it is in the gallery, and for how much.
- How many days until you are paid after it sells.
The fifth point causes the most trouble and is almost never asked.
How to recognise a gallery with a programme
Not by the sign or the neighbourhood. By signals you can check in five minutes: a list of represented artists that holds up over time, exhibitions with dates and texts of their own, presence at fairs with a selection committee, and work by their artists in public collections. A space that rents its walls to whoever pays has none of the four.
The ones in this directory have been checked one by one, and every listing says where its information came from. What we do not do, and why, is in the pact.