In the art world, title has two meanings – the name of a work and legal ownership. For now, I will be discussing the latter. Title is a legal term used to describe, in our case, the ownership of a work of art. Questions often asked are: Do you have ‘title’ to the work? Are you the owner of the work? Does the work have ‘clear title’?
Determining if the person you are purchasing a work from has clear title, or the legal right to sell it, is often difficult. Unlike other items one may buy – cars, stocks or real estate – works of art (and for that matter jewelry, furniture, porcelain, and most collectibles) are not registered/listed in some database where one can see who the real owner is. Most works of art have changed hands many times (often privately) and the provenance (the actual chain of ownership – which I will discuss next month) is usually very vague, has significant gaps, or is entirely unknown. In many cases, it is nearly impossible to verify who the actual owner is.
We have all read about Nazi-looted art, or soldiers who ‘took’ works that they found during the Second World War, and how many of these pieces ended up in major public institutions and private collections. With more information about these looted works surfacing on various Internet sites, it is becoming a little easier to see if a particular piece has a dark past, but there is still a great deal of art missing from those databases. When a purported stolen work is discovered, and there is proof that the work never had clear title, the current owner is usually forced to return it to either the actual owner or their heirs, and that can be a very costly matter.
So, what is a buyer to do? Well, your best option is to deal with reputable and well-established firms who will stand behind the works they sell. In other words, should an issue ever arise concerning the title of something you own, the establishment you purchased it from will take the hit and refund your money. Most reputable galleries, to the best of their abilities, do their ‘due diligence.’ They want to be as sure as possible that the individuals they are buying from are the actual owners, have clear title, and the legal right to sell. There is nothing more embarrassing than calling a client, years after they bought something, to inform them that a work in their collection was stolen and must be returned. However, without national databases showing a legal chain of ownership, there is still only so far even a trained professional can go.
Keep in mind that this risk is even more present in some of the online auction platforms. Most people trading on the Internet know nothing about each other. Besides the apparent chance that you may pay for something and never receive it, how do you know that the item offered is owned by the seller, or that the seller has the legal right to offer it? Also, what if the work turns out to be stolen? Will you ever be able to find the person who sold it? Will you ever get your money back? In the faceless Internet world, the answers to these questions are pretty obvious.
If this unfortunate turn of events should happen, it is usually the last person holding the work that is “out the money.” Again, as I mentioned earlier, to help protect yourself from being the unfortunate one, it is advisable to deal with well-established firms (dealers, galleries, auctions, etc.). Those that are leaders in their field, have developed excellent reputations, and have been, and will most likely be, in business for many years to come.