Published October 19, 2026
Most disagreements between artists and galleries are not about art. They are about money that arrived later than expected, a discount nobody remembers approving, a work that went to a fair without the artist knowing, or a piece that came back damaged. A clear artist gallery consignment agreement prevents most of these conversations before they start. This checklist covers the business points a gallerist should agree with every consigning artist and then keep in the records, so the agreement is followed in practice and not only on paper. It is a practical business checklist, not legal advice, and an attorney in your state should review the final agreement.
Try it on one of your works
Sample artist
Harbour Light IV, 2024
Oil on canvas
$18,500
No card required. Your inventory stays yours, export it as CSV any time.
The demo creates one artwork record per visitor per day. Create an account to keep adding works.
views 0
Under consignment, the artist keeps ownership of the work until it is sold, and the gallery acts as the selling agent. The gallery holds the work, presents it to collectors and, when a sale happens, collects the payment, keeps its commission and pays the artist's share. The agreement sets the rules for each of those steps.
A written agreement also matters for the relationship itself. Many artists and galleries start working together on a handshake, and the early months go well because everyone remembers the conversation. Two or three years later, with dozens of works sold, several fairs behind them and staff changes on both sides, nobody remembers the details in the same way. A short, clear document that both sides signed is kinder to the relationship than a long memory of what was probably agreed.
Many states have specific statutes on artist and gallery consignment, often covering how proceeds are held, when artists must be paid and whether consigned works are protected from the gallery's creditors. The rules differ from state to state, which is one more reason to have the agreement reviewed locally.
The agreement should leave no doubt about which works are covered. A vague phrase like "works delivered to the gallery" causes problems the moment one work comes back and another arrives.
Keep the schedule in the inventory, not only in a signed PDF. When each work is linked to the artist's consignment terms, the gallery can produce a current schedule at any moment.
It also helps to agree on who signs the schedule and how often it is confirmed. A quarterly check, where the gallery sends the current schedule and the artist confirms it, catches errors while they are still small. If a work is missing, damaged or held somewhere unexpected, it is far easier to resolve a few weeks after the fact than at the end of a long consignment.
This section of the agreement causes the most friction later, so it deserves the most precision.
Write down discount authority even if it seems obvious today. Collectors routinely ask for a courtesy discount, and an associate needs to know the limit without calling the director. Storing the limit on the artist record makes it visible to everyone selling the work.
Be specific about who pays for what when the price includes extras. If a collector buys a framed work and the frame cost the gallery money, the agreement should say whether the frame cost comes out of the gallery's share, the artist's share or the sale price before the split. The same question applies to crating and shipping for works sold to collectors in other cities. Answering these questions once, in writing, avoids a new negotiation with every sale.
Artists judge a gallery by how reliably they are paid. The agreement should make the timing and the paperwork clear.
Regular statements build trust even in months without sales. On the Gallery plan and above, Gallerists produces artist statements from consignment records and sales, and on the Program plan the artist portal lets consigned artists see their works, statements and sales directly.
Installment sales deserve a clear rule because they are common in the primary market. A collector may pay for a larger work over several months, and the artist needs to know whether they are paid proportionally as each installment arrives or in full once the last payment clears. Either approach can work; what matters is that both sides know which one applies and that the statement shows it.
While a work is consigned, the gallery is responsible for it. The agreement should say how far that responsibility goes.
Record the location and condition of each work in the inventory. If a dispute arises, a dated condition note and a location history are far more useful than memory.
Consigned works travel, and artists want to know where.
A simple rule helps: the artist should never learn from social media that their work is at a fair. Keeping a location history on every work makes it easy to tell the artist where each piece is.
Image rights are worth a sentence of their own. The gallery needs to use images of the works to sell them, in offers, viewing rooms, fair materials and on its website. The artist usually keeps copyright, and the agreement can grant the gallery a license to use images for promotion and sales during the consignment and for documenting past exhibitions afterward.
Every consignment relationship ends eventually, and the agreement should make the ending orderly.
When the agreement ends, release every hold on the artist's works and close any viewing rooms that still show them, so no collector is offered a work the gallery can no longer sell.
An agreement filed in a drawer does not protect anyone. The terms only work when the people selling the work can see them.
In Gallerists, consignment terms live on the artist record and every consigned work is linked to them, so offers, invoices and artist statements follow the agreement automatically. Read how the art consignment software works on the Gallery plan, then create your first artwork record and attach it to an artist.