Submission terms

The submission ritual

The submission flow is built around a three-photograph intake: front, back, and hallmark. The triplet captures the design face of the piece, the construction and any artist's marks on the reverse, and a close, well-lit photograph of the hallmark itself. Submitters supply dimensions, weight where known, and any acquisition context that helps locate the piece in time and place.

Three photographs is the minimum for any service tier. A clean front photograph alone is not enough to attribute a piece against the catalog; a clean hallmark alone is not enough to date the production. The triplet is the smallest set that supports the kind of analysis the service is designed for.

What we do with submitted photographs

Submitted photographs are stored in the Museum's research database, analyzed against the catalog and against published references, and used to produce the report associated with the submission. Beyond that, the photograph's use depends on the privacy level the submitter selects at intake.

We do not sell submitted photographs. We do not transfer them to third parties outside of the analysis pipeline. We do retain them on our systems indefinitely so that the report and its underlying evidence remain available to the submitter and to any subsequent verification work the submitter requests.

Privacy levels

Each submission carries one of four privacy levels, selected by the submitter at intake and editable by the submitter at any time.

private

The submission, the photographs, and the report are visible only to the submitter and to Museum staff. The piece does not appear in the public catalog, in any aggregated research, or in any other context outside the submitter's account.

anonymous-research

The piece may be referenced in aggregated research outputs without any information that identifies the submitter or the location of the piece. Photographs may be used in research, stripped of identifying metadata.

public-archive

The piece is added to the public catalog as a documented example, with collector identity withheld unless the submitter elects otherwise. Photographs are reproduced on the public piece page.

open-to-verification

The piece is added to the public catalog and the record is marked as available for outside verification, including by other collectors, researchers, or institutions. The strongest privacy posture for someone who wants the piece on the record and the attribution challenged in the open.

Service tiers

Submissions can be routed to one of four service tiers: identification, attribution opinion, verification, and auction comp search. Each tier has a different scope of analysis and a different output. None of them is an appraisal. See /no-appraisal for the distinction between the comp-search product and a formal appraisal.