When a work's first public appearance is a web page, the record begins online — on infrastructure nobody has agreed to preserve.
What changed
A quiet migration of the first record.
Historically, a work entered the record through an exhibition: a printed checklist, a catalogue, an invoice. Each of these had a custodian and a reasonable expectation of survival.
The viewing room replaced all three with a URL. URLs have neither custodian nor expectation. A presentation taken down after six weeks may leave no trace that a work was ever shown, priced, or described in a particular way.
Terms
- First record
The earliest documented public appearance of a work, with its description and attribution at that moment.
- Custodial gap
A period during which a record exists but no party is responsible for keeping it.
Where a record used to live
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Then
Printed checklist
Held by the gallery, the artist and often a library.
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Then
Catalogue
Deposited, indexed, and findable decades later.
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Now
Viewing room page
Live for six weeks, archived by nobody in particular.
A record is only as good as the trust it carries.
Notes
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We are describing practice in the primary market. Auction records have their own, better-kept problems.