Buying Art Directly From the Artist: What to Get in Writing Before the Work Leaves the Studio

Buying art directly from the artist has moved from the margins of collecting to its centre. The Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2026, published on 8 October 2026, found that 69% of the 3,100 high net worth collectors it surveyed bought at least one work from an artist across 2025 and the first half of 2026, and that these purchases accounted for 19% of their total spending on art. That makes the studio the second largest channel by value, behind dealers and ahead of art fairs and auctions. The shift brings collectors closer to the people who make the work. It also removes the intermediary whose paperwork a future buyer, insurer or auction house will ask to see. This article sets out what a dealer or a house normally supplies, which documents a collector should secure before a work leaves the studio, and how that paper trail behaves when the work is resold.

À retenir :

• 69% of high net worth collectors bought directly from an artist in 2025 and the first half of 2026, more than double the share recorded in the 2024 survey.
• Artist direct purchases represented 19% of collector spending in 2025/2026 (7% through studios, 6% through Instagram, 6% through commissions), against 15% at art fairs and 10% at auction.
• The EU resale right of Directive 2001/84/EC applies to resales involving art market professionals, at 4% on the first €50,000 of the price, capped at €12,500 per sale.
• A studio purchase that leaves with a signed invoice, a dated photograph and a written statement from the artist is far easier to consign, insure and resell than one documented by a message thread.

Why collectors are buying art directly from the artist in greater numbers

Artist direct sales (purchases made from the artist or the artist's studio, with no gallery or auction house in between) are now the second most used channel among wealthy collectors. In the 2026 edition of the survey, the share of collectors buying this way rose by 6 points to 69%. Studio visits led the way at 48%, up 5 points; 40% had commissioned a work, up 3 points; 38% had found a work on Instagram and bought it from the artist or through a link to the artist, up 3 points. Artist direct buying was most common in Hong Kong (82%) and in France and Germany (both 73%).

The figures by value tell a sharper story. In 2024, dealers took 52% of collector spending, fairs 8% and auctions 23%. In 2025/2026, dealers held 27%, fairs 15%, artist direct sales 19% and auctions 10%. The traditional routes (dealers, fairs and auctions combined) now carry 52% of spending, and only 11% of collectors used those routes exclusively. The survey covers 3,100 collectors with at least $1 million in personal wealth across ten markets, and 77% of them spent less than $50,000 on art in the first half of 2026, which is the price band where most studio purchases sit.

Three forces explain the move. The first is access: an artist's Instagram account and website let a collector follow a practice for months before making contact, and the survey records that 53% of dealer buyers bought through Instagram without seeing the work in person, up from 41% in 2024. The second is the gallery system itself. Stephen Friedman Gallery in London entered administration on 2 February 2026 after thirty years, leaving 39 artists and estates without their London dealer and owing more than £800,000 to artists; several of them reappeared at Frieze London in October 2026 with new galleries, while others had no UK representation at all. When representation breaks, the studio becomes the obvious point of contact. The third is caution. The share of collectors who bought work by an artist unfamiliar to them fell from 66% in 2025 to 45% in 2026, its lowest level in five years. A collector who wants to know an artist before buying goes to the studio.

The demographic pattern is unusual. Boomers and Gen Z collectors were the most active across multiple channels in the survey, with boomers recording the highest participation in most of them, while Gen X and millennial collectors concentrated their buying in fewer routes. For the experienced collector in the 35 to 65 bracket, the lesson is practical: the studio is now a mainstream channel, and it deserves the same documentary discipline as a purchase at auction.

What a dealer or auction house supplies that a studio sale does not

Provenance (the documented chain of ownership of a work, from the artist to the present owner) starts at the first sale. When a gallery sells a new work, it generates most of that first link: an inventory number, a dated invoice naming the work in full, installation and exhibition records, and a sale recorded in the gallery's archive. When an auction house sells a work, it adds a catalogue entry, a published result, a condition report and terms of sale that set out what happens if title or attribution is disputed. Both intermediaries keep records for decades, and both can be contacted by a future buyer.

A studio sale produces none of this by default. The artist is the most authoritative source on the work's authorship, and a direct purchase from the hand that made it is the cleanest possible first link. The risk sits elsewhere: the record of that link depends on what the artist writes down, what the collector keeps, and whether either of them can still produce it in twenty years. A WhatsApp exchange and a bank transfer reference prove that money moved. An auction specialist needs a document that identifies the work, its dimensions, its date and its medium, and a message thread holds those details only when the collector asked for them.

The table below sets the three routes side by side on the documents a later buyer will request.

The leading concern raised by collectors in the 2026 survey was the art market's lack of transparency, including opaque pricing, undisclosed fees and conflicts of interest. A studio purchase answers that concern on price, because the collector deals with the person who sets it. It leaves the collector responsible for the record that a dealer or house would otherwise create, and the next section lists that record item by item.

Buying art directly from the artist: the documents to secure at purchase

The paperwork that protects a studio purchase takes about an hour to assemble on the day of sale and is close to impossible to reconstruct later. The list below follows the order in which a specialist checks a work at consignment. Each item answers a question the next owner will ask.

1. Signed and dated invoice. The invoice names the artist, the buyer, the full title, the year of execution, the medium, the dimensions in centimetres and inches, the price, the currency, the date of sale and the payment method. It carries the artist's signature or the studio's business details, and any VAT number the artist holds.
2. Photographs of the work. A full frontal photograph, a detail of the signature, and a photograph of the verso (the back of the canvas or sheet, where stretcher marks, inscriptions and labels appear), each taken at the studio on the day of sale.
3. Written statement of authorship. A short letter or certificate in which the artist confirms that the work is by their hand, with the same description as the invoice. Where the artist issues numbered certificates, the certificate number appears on the invoice.
4. Edition details. For prints, photographs, casts and multiples: the edition size, the number of the impression, the number and type of artist's proofs, the printer or foundry, and confirmation that no further impressions will be made.
5. Materials and conservation notes. The paints, grounds, supports and any unusual materials, with the artist's instructions on display, light, humidity and handling. Conservators rely on this note when a work needs treatment decades after the artist has stopped answering questions.
6. Exhibition and publication history. If the work has been exhibited or reproduced, the venue, dates and publication. A work shown in a museum survey or illustrated in a monograph carries that history into every later sale.
7. Reproduction rights. A sentence confirming that the artist keeps copyright and that the collector may photograph the work for insurance, loans and resale catalogues. This avoids a request for permission when an auction house needs to illustrate the lot.
8. Contact and archive record. The artist's studio address, the email that will remain in use, and, where one exists, the name of the gallery or estate that keeps the artist's archive.

The invoice for buying art from an artist: what makes it usable

An invoice is usable at resale when a stranger can match it to the object without asking the owner a single question. That means the title, year and medium on the invoice match those on the work's verso and in the artist's own records, and the dimensions are given to the centimetre. An invoice reading "painting, blue, 2026" fails that test; an invoice reading "Untitled (Harbour III), 2026, oil on linen, 120 × 90 cm, signed and dated on the reverse" passes it. The invoice also anchors the date of first transfer, which matters for the EU resale right and for any later tax calculation in the collector's country of residence. Payment by bank transfer to an account in the artist's or studio's name completes the record: a payment trail that matches the invoice amount, date and payee is the simplest corroboration a specialist can ask for. Cash payments break that chain, and a receipt in place of an invoice weakens it.

Buying art directly from the artist: certificate, letter or catalogue raisonné?

A certificate of authenticity (a signed document in which the artist, an estate or an authorised body confirms authorship of a specific work) carries weight in proportion to the authority of whoever signs it. For a living artist selling from the studio, a signed statement from the artist is the strongest available document. A catalogue raisonné (the comprehensive, scholarly list of an artist's known works) does not exist for most living artists, so the artist's own inventory serves as its first draft. Ask whether the artist keeps an inventory numbering system, and have the work's number written on both the invoice and the statement.

How to commission an artwork without leaving gaps in the record

Commissions accounted for 40% of artist direct buyers and 6% of collector spending in 2025/2026, which makes them the least visible and least documented part of the channel. A commission is a contract for a work that does not yet exist, so the agreement written before the first sketch is the work's founding document. When the brief, the price and the approval process are left to conversation, the disagreements surface at delivery, and the record that reaches a future buyer is incomplete.

A commission agreement covers seven points. It describes the work: medium, approximate dimensions, subject or brief, and the degree of artistic freedom the artist keeps. It sets the price, the currency and the payment schedule, typically a deposit on signature and a balance on delivery, with the percentage of each stated. It fixes a delivery date and states what happens if the date slips. It defines approval: whether the collector sees a sketch or a study, how many rounds of revision are included, and what happens to the deposit if the collector rejects the finished work. It confirms that ownership of the physical work passes on full payment while copyright stays with the artist. It states who owns the preparatory studies, which are works in their own right and can be sold separately. It names who pays for packing, shipping and insurance in transit.

Once the work is delivered, the commission needs the same documents as any studio purchase: a final invoice, photographs, a statement of authorship and conservation notes. The agreement itself goes into the file, because it explains why the work exists and who chose its subject. A site specific work deserves photographs of its original installation.

Buying art on Instagram: closing the verification gap

Instagram is the channel where the record is thinnest at the point of sale. 38% of collectors bought directly from an artist through Instagram in 2025/2026, and these purchases represented 6% of total spending. The share of spending on artist Instagram sales was 8% for collectors with two years or less in the market, against 2% for those collecting for more than twenty years, which means the least experienced buyers are the heaviest users of the least documented route.

The specific risk on social media is identity. An account using an artist's name and images is not proof that the person replying to a message is the artist or the studio. Before paying, a collector should confirm the account through a second channel: the artist's website, a gallery that has shown the artist, or a video call from the studio. Payment should go to an account in the name of the artist or the studio, and never through a gift or friends payment option that offers no recourse. The 2026 survey found that 20% of collectors saw fraud, forgery and market manipulation as the main risk of artificial intelligence in the art market, and a convincing account built from copied images is the simplest form that risk takes.

Once the seller is confirmed, an Instagram purchase needs the same file as a studio sale. Save the direct messages that led to the purchase as a dated PDF and file them with the invoice and the statement of authorship. The collector should ask for photographs of the work in the studio before shipping and for a condition note signed by the artist at dispatch, so that any damage in transit can be separated from the work's condition at sale. Works bought unseen from another country also raise import duty and VAT on arrival, covered in our analysis of what a cross-border art purchase actually costs.

What the paperwork does when the work is resold

The primary price of a work and its later auction price are set by different buyers in different markets, and the paperwork from the studio is what allows the second market to take the work at all. The primary market is the first sale of a work, by the artist or the artist's gallery; the secondary market is every later sale, by collectors, dealers and auction houses. October 2026 offered a clear illustration of the distance between them. At Sotheby's Contemporary Curated sale, Avery Singer's 2018 painting Kundry hammered at $190,000 ($243,200 with fees) against an estimate of $600,000 to $800,000, after selling for $2.1 million at Sotheby's New York in 2022 and being withdrawn in May 2025 with an estimate of $1.4 million to $1.8 million. Over the same period, Hauser & Wirth placed new paintings by the artist at $575,000 and $800,000 at art fairs.

The lesson for a studio buyer concerns process more than price. A secondary sale goes through specialists who check the work's identity, its ownership history and its condition before they accept it, and they price it on comparable results from the open market. A work with a full studio file passes the first two checks in a single exchange. A work with no invoice, no photographs and no statement of authorship has to be documented after the fact, by contacting the artist, the gallery or the estate. When an artist is no longer represented, or when a gallery closes, that contact becomes harder; our reading of what happens when an art gallery closes traces the effect on an artist's market and archive.

A worked scenario shows the mechanics. A collector buys a painting from a living EU artist's studio in 2026 for €18,000 with a full file. In 2030 the collector consigns it to an online auction, where it hammers at €15,000. The work sells more than three years after the first transfer and above €10,000, so the resale right applies at 4% of the hammer price, €600, payable by the seller under the directive's default rule. A seller's commission of 10%, the rate charged at LLB Auction, adds €1,500. The seller receives €12,900 before any VAT on the commission or shipping costs. If the same collector had resold the work to a gallery within two years for €8,000, a member state using the directive's optional exemption would charge no resale royalty at all. In both cases, the invoice dated 2026 is the document that proves which rule applies.

Rachel Peart, UBS Art Advisory Specialist, framed the longer view in the survey's accompanying analysis: "As collections mature, attention often shifts from acquisition alone to considerations around stewardship, refinement, and legacy." A studio file is part of that stewardship. 72% of the surveyed collectors already hold inherited art, and the heirs who receive a work bought at a studio in 2026 will find its value in the market depends in part on whether the invoice and the artist's letter are still in the drawer.

VAT, export and the resale right: the points to verify by country

The legal framework around a studio purchase changes with the artist's country, the buyer's country and the route of any later sale. Three points deserve a check before payment, and a fourth before any resale.

The first is VAT on the sale itself. VAT (value added tax) applies to a sale by an artist who is registered for it, and EU law has long allowed member states to apply a reduced rate to the supply of a work of art by its creator. The rate, the registration threshold for artists and the conditions differ by member state, and the rules were reorganised in the 2022 reform of EU VAT rates. The invoice should show whether VAT is charged, at what rate, and the artist's VAT number if one exists.

The second is export and import. A work shipped into the EU from outside the single market triggers import VAT and customs formalities on arrival. Export licences in the country of origin apply above thresholds of age and value that a living artist's recent work is unlikely to reach. Keep the shipping documents and customs declaration with the invoice: they confirm the date and route of import.

The third is the resale right, known in French as the droit de suite (the artist's inalienable right to a royalty when a work is resold through an art market professional). Directive 2001/84/EC, adopted on 27 September 2001 and applied across the EU from 1 January 2006, sets the rates on the net sale price in bands: 4% up to €50,000, 3% from €50,000 to €200,000, 1% from €200,000 to €350,000, 0.5% from €350,000 to €500,000 and 0.25% above €500,000, with a total cap of €12,500 per sale. Member states may set a minimum price below which the right does not apply, at no more than €3,000. The right does not apply to the first sale by the artist, nor to sales between private individuals without a professional involved. The details of national implementation, including the position outside the EU, are set out in our guide to the artist resale right.

The fourth point concerns resale within three years. The directive allows member states to exempt a resale where the seller bought the work directly from the artist less than three years earlier and the resale price does not exceed €10,000. The exemption is optional, so a collector planning a quick resale should check whether the country of sale applies it.

FAQ : buying from the artist's studio

Is buying art directly from the artist cheaper than buying from a gallery?

The price is set by the artist, and an artist with a gallery has an interest in keeping studio and gallery prices aligned so that one channel does not undercut the other. Artist direct sales took 19% of collector spending in 2025/2026, against 27% for dealers. The saving a collector gains at the studio lies in transparency about who receives the money. The cost is the documentation a gallery would have produced, which the collector must now request.

What should an invoice for buying art from an artist include?

The invoice should name the artist and the buyer, and give the full title, year, medium, dimensions in centimetres, price, currency, date of sale and payment method. It should carry the artist's signature or business details and any VAT number. Edition works add the edition size and impression number. A specialist at consignment matches every one of these details against the work and the artist's records, so a vague description weakens the invoice as proof of provenance.

Does the EU resale right apply when I buy from the artist's studio?

The resale right of Directive 2001/84/EC does not apply to the first sale of a work by its author. It applies to later resales involving an art market professional such as an auction house, gallery or dealer, at rates from 4% to 0.25% of the price, capped at €12,500 per sale. Member states may exempt resales below €10,000 made within three years of a purchase from the artist, so the date on the studio invoice decides which rule applies.

How do I verify an artist's Instagram account before paying?

Confirm the account through a second, independent channel: the artist's own website, a gallery that has exhibited the artist, or a video call from the studio showing the work. Pay only to a bank account in the artist's or studio's name. In the 2026 survey, 20% of collectors named fraud, forgery and market manipulation as the main risk that artificial intelligence brings to the art market, and copied images on an impostor account are the simplest version of that risk.

Can I resell a commissioned work at auction?

A commissioned work can be resold like any other once it is fully paid for, unless the commission agreement says otherwise. Ownership of the physical work passes to the collector, while copyright stays with the artist under EU copyright law. The agreement, the final invoice and the statement of authorship together form the provenance file a specialist will ask for. Commissions represented 6% of collector spending in 2025/2026, and a written agreement is the document that sets them apart from undocumented private sales.

How LLB Auction helps collectors document what they buy and sell

LLB Auction applies the same scrutiny to a work bought from a studio as to any other consignment. The house runs four timed online sales a year on its own platform at llb-auction.com, with lots also listed on Artsy, and every consignment passes the same intake.

Intake and due diligence. Roughly 40% of submissions are declined at intake. For each accepted work, the house checks certificates, ownership history and conservation records, and a studio invoice with photographs and a statement of authorship is the kind of file that allows that check to proceed.

Condition reports. Every lot carries a three-page professional condition report, published with the sale. For a collector who bought from a studio and kept the artist's conservation notes, the report records the work's condition at the point of resale against that original reference.

Transparent costs. The buyer's premium is 20% and the seller's commission 10%, disclosed before bidding or consigning, with coordinated worldwide shipping and full post-sale support. A collector reselling a studio purchase can calculate the net proceeds, including any resale royalty, before committing the work to a sale.

Register at llb-auction.com to receive the next sale calendar and the condition reports for each lot as they are published. Ask your questions. We have answers. Collectors planning purchases in the accessible segment can read our analysis of buying art under $50,000 online.

Conclusion

The 2026 survey confirms that the studio is now a mainstream route into a collection, with 69% of wealthy collectors buying there and 19% of their spending flowing through it. The channel brings the collector closer to the artist and to a clear price, and it hands the collector the documentary work a gallery or auction house would otherwise do. The record from the studio is what lets a work move from one owner to the next with its history intact.

The file is short and specific: a signed invoice that describes the work in full, photographs of the front, signature and verso, a written statement from the artist, edition and conservation notes, a commission agreement where relevant, and proof of payment to the artist. Assembled on the day of purchase, it costs nothing. For any collector buying art directly from the artist, it is the difference between a work that can be consigned, insured and inherited without question and one that has to be documented after the fact.

Also worth reading:

• What happens when an art gallery closes, and what it does to an artist's market
• Artist resale right: who pays the artist when a work resells
• Import tax on art: what a cross-border purchase actually costs
• How to research an artist before buying at auction
• Buying art under $50,000: the accessible online segment

Sources:

• The Art Basel and UBS Survey of Global Collecting 2026 : Arts Economics, Art Basel and UBS, 8 October 2026
• From AI to Gen Z: everything to know about the 2026 Survey of Global Collecting : Art Basel, 8 October 2026
• Collecting across generations : Art Basel, Melanie Gerlis, 16 October 2026
• Wealthy Gen Z collectors are the art market's biggest spenders, survey finds : The Art Newspaper, Carlie Porterfield, 8 October 2026
• Artists impacted by Stephen Friedman gallery closure out in force at Frieze London : The Art Newspaper, Phin Jennings, 15 October 2026
• Why this Avery Singer painting just sold at a 91 percent loss : Artnet News, Katya Kazakina, 9 October 2026
• Avery Singer painting sells for 91 percent loss at Sotheby's : USA Art News, 9 October 2026
• Directive 2001/84/EC on the resale right for the benefit of the author of an original work of art : European Parliament and Council, 27 September 2001
• Directive 2001/84/EC, legislation record : WIPO Lex
• Council Directive 2006/112/EC on the common system of value added tax : Council of the European Union, 28 November 2006