Buying art directly from the artist: how it works

01Why a hand-delivered artwork changes everything

A shipped artwork means a box, a courier, insurance, and the fear of opening the parcel. A hand-delivered artwork means a twenty-minute meeting and a painting you saw before taking it.

• You see the true colour. No screen renders texture, the thickness of the paint or a varnish.
• You see the true size. It’s the most common mistake in online purchases.
• Nothing can get damaged in transit, because there is no transit.
• You meet the person who made it. They tell you the story of the painting, and that story stays hung up with it.
• You pay no transport costs, which quickly exceed €40 for a framed piece.

02How it goes, step by step

• You spot a work and you reserve it. At that point the money leaves your account but doesn’t go to the artist yet: it is held.
• You agree on a place and a time. A public place in daytime is the norm, the artist’s studio if you both agree.
• You meet. You look at the work, you ask your questions, you take your time.
• If all is well, you confirm the handover. That’s the action that releases the money to the artist.
• If the work doesn’t match what was advertised, you don’t confirm, and you are refunded.

Holding the money until the handover is the heart of the system. Without it, one of you inevitably takes the other’s risk.

03What to check before confirming

• The size, tape measure in hand if you can. A canvas advertised as 80 × 100 must measure 80 × 100.
• The colours, in daylight. A photo taken under a yellow lamp lies a lot.
• The condition: the edges, the corners, the stretcher at the back, the varnish. A snag shows better from an angle.
• The signature and the date, on the front or the back.
• If the work is framed: the glass, and whether the frame is the one in the photos.

Take your time. Nobody serious will hold it against you for looking at a painting for five minutes before taking it home for ten years.

04Your rights depend on who is selling

This is the point almost nobody knows, and it changes everything. In Belgium, as in the rest of the European Union, consumer protection only applies to purchases made from a professional seller.

• You buy from a professional artist: you have the 14-day right of withdrawal for a distance purchase, and the legal guarantee of conformity.
• You buy from a private individual: that right of withdrawal doesn’t apply. A sale between private individuals isn’t covered by consumer law.

That’s why a serious platform clearly shows, on every listing, whether the artist is a private individual or a professional. If that information is nowhere to be found, it’s a bad sign.

These rules change. Before a significant purchase, check the current state of the law on the FPS Economy website, linked at the bottom of this page.

05Is the work an original?

When you buy directly from the person who painted it, the question of authenticity comes up differently: the author is standing in front of you. Ask them to sign a certificate, even a handwritten one. A name, a title, a date, a size, a technique, a signature. That’s enough.

Also ask whether it’s a one-off piece or an edition. For a photograph or a print, the edition number and the total number of copies are part of what you’re buying.