ĒKŌPA'S SERVICES

ĒKŌPA provides fine art consulting and professional services for documentation, marketing and sales representation of estate artworks and private collections.

ĒKŌPA works directly for Client as their hired consultant and advocate, to document, prepare and strategically place their artworks in viable marketplaces, that are best suited to facilitate favorable sales on their behalf.

Our estate Clients are typically the heirs, executor, probate attorney, or other appointed custodian, responsible for the legal dispensation of fine art assets in the subject estate. 

ĒKŌPA’s consulting and professional services for estate artworks typically include:

• Methodical inspection, precise measurement, condition assessment, and identification of media & materials 
• Detailed documentation, inventory compilation, expert photography and cataloging
• Provenance research, restorative conservation, authorized selective repair or replacement of framing components
• Maintaining documented chain of custody, safe handling, protection and secure storage
• Valuation, marketing, turnkey sales transactions and business documentation
• Expert packing, insured shipping, transport and delivery of artworks to purchasers

Our professional staff is also highly skilled in preparing accurate, detailed documentation for all business and sales transactions conducted for our Clients, and reporting as instructed to their 3rd-party designees, such as the appointed executor, their probate attorneys, accountants, insurers, etc. As such, the quality of our record keeping and documents prepared for submission, are designed to streamline and ease the administrative burden for other estate professionals in our Clients' employ.

ĒKŌPA has an established, discretionary network of trusted fine art professionals and reliable institutional resources to draw upon throughout the US and abroad, that helps us document and support our provenance research, and valuation of the artworks before selecting the marketplaces and offering the artworks for sale.

ĒKŌPA’s business approach to marketing and sales of estate artworks is a clear departure from that of:

• Conventional auction houses that may or not successfully “liquidate” the lot of fine art assets assigned by an estate, while still charging consignment, listing, storage, and promotion fees (on top of their sales commission), as well as an additional buyer’s premium and other fees charged to both buyer and seller

• Many online auction sites with prescribed “auto-price reduction” time schedules that progressively reduce the price (and ultimately the market value) of an artwork, while also charging for subscription, their commission, and a variety of other fees; and that      often publish misleading valuations and/or purported auction sales that never actually occur

• Unscrupulous entrepreneurs who routinely sell off their existing inventory of inferior and/or less-valuable pieces (via the illegal practice of “house packing”), by misrepresenting those artworks as part of a more-valuable or prestigious collection from a single estate

• Established galleries and professional art dealers, who may seem reputable, but can also employ certain business tactics to conceal and/or suppress important pricing information, to manipulate opposing valuations of the very same artwork that (depending on if they are selling or buying), serve their own interests.

Unlike the aforementioned types of entities that routinely serve their own interests (as buyer, seller, or both), ĒKŌPA serves only the interests of our Client, as the seller.

• Inspection and assessment of Client's staging venue to review existing floor plans, interior design & lighting features, fenestration, acceptable wall hanging areas, architectural finishes, and overall aesthetics for staging installation

• Provide assistance with event planning, managing workspace logistics, and coordination with Client's other personnel working onsite

• Provide Client with images from our extensive in-house inventory of high quality, original artworks specifically reserved as rentals for staging applications

• Assist Client with selection, layout and interior integration of the artworks, and provide turnkey delivery, installation and removal of same from the staging venue

• ĒKŌPA also provides similar services for larger-scale staging events in municipal centers, public facilities, commercial office & retail spaces, restaurants and entertainment venues  

• Personalized training for emerging artists and studio technicians, to improve their technical production skills, learn selection and handling of fine art materials & finished artworks, and to help mentor them in developing the professional business, management & communication skills needed for self sufficiency in the marketplace

• Public classroom and studio instruction of undergrad college-level course (developed by ĒKŌPA), for professional matting, framing and presentation of high-quality artworks 

• Technical training in common manufacturing and marketing processes; identification, selection and procurement of fine art media, materials & products 

• Selection and safe use of studio tools & equipment

• Hands-on instruction in the fabrication and completed production of custom mount, mat, frame, finish, hardware & glazing assemblies for original artworks under glass, ready for presentation and hanging to museum standards

Contact us to receive the course syllabus, session outlines, and more info about present schedules, venues, costs and availability 

Contact Us about Employment and Career Opportunities with ĒKŌPA and/or SEAGALLERY