I think the situation over my work being damaged in a gallery is now resolved, so I can finally, in the words of a-n’s Susan Jones, ‘pass on my wisdom’.
I’m not going to fit all of the correspondence into the 700 words we can put in our blogs, so I’ll try to condense it putting it into some sort of order.
22 November. Received email that my work was damaged.
25 November, after receiving advice from Susan, I wrote back to the gallery. It wasn’t wording I would use and I felt a little uncomfortable with it to be honest. ‘Once my assessment has been completed I will be able to give you my estimated costs for repair or remaking the work’. (While in my mind I was thinking ‘oh I’m sorry, I’m useless, my work is rubbish. Please walk all over me :-( )
28 November. Meeting at gallery. The work was beyond repair.
2 December. Sent an invoice based on the work taking me 6 hours to repair (@£25 an hour) plus one hour to source new material (£25) Total £175
4 December. Response from gallery:
Thank you for sending the invoice in but unfortunately we will be unable to pay you that amount for the repair. I think it is best that we negotiate the amount before you submit another invoice.
I appreciate that you need to completely rebuild the house and source the right material but your request for £175.00 is above the value of the work you had on sale in the Open exhibition.
The on the wall price was £200, of which 30% was the galleries commission, therefore the total you would have received would have been £140 if it had sold.
Could you provide me with records of sales of similar work at and around this price please? If I decide to go through our insurance company they will only repay if the artist has proof of similar sales and that the work is proven to be valued at that amount.
This is where I realised that I had grossly undervalued the work when I put the sale price of £200. I rarely do work for sale and as this was a new line of work for me, I had nothing to compare it too.
I didn’t know what to do at this stage and really wanted to back down.
5 Dec
With further advice, I stressed that that this was the value of my work and received the following response:
Thank you for your email.
I appreciate the time it will take to repair the work but your invoice fee is above the cost of the original work, which was £140. As to the conversation on the 28th, I suggested you take the piece home and evaluate the damage and let me know the cost and then invoice me.
The Museum is not prepared to pay over the amount originally stated. The work was not completely destroyed and therefore we cannot pay above the cost it was on sale for.
6 Dec
At this point (and I hasten to add that no way in the world would I have normally said this)
I wrote:
Thanks for your email.
I have now had time to give the conversations and correspondence between us some consideration. In order to settle the matter and move on, I will accept your offer to pay the sale price of my art work less your commission (£140). I am therefore attaching my revised invoice and payment terms for that amount.
It was like lighting a fuse and standing back.
9 Dec
Unbelievably, I recieved this response:
I have sent your invoice through to our finance team for payment.
I am still of the opinion that £100 would have been a fairer amount for the repair of your work but, as you say, it is best to move on.
I can’t believe that this has been resolved. To stand firm and continuously state ‘this is what my work is worth’ and to not be a victim was so alien to me.
So… lessons learnt and I’m now going to read the a-n Practical guide on negotiation from start to finish!
www.a-n.co.uk//p/204639//shortcut/article/204639
