Bookkeeping and Inventory software

by ALYSON STANFIELD on JUNE 24, 2009

My recent series on finances has brought up the question: “What software do you recommend for keeping track of my art work and having the correct information for tax purposes?”

What you need are two different pieces of software: one for your inventory and mailing list database and another for your financial records.

Based on feedback I receive from artists, I speculate that these are the top three inventory-mailing list databases. They will keep track of your inventory, sales, and contacts.

1. Flick!
2. eArtist
3. Bento (Mac only)

Both Flick! and eArtist are formatted for artist use. Bento is like “FileMaker Light” and requires formatting, but I’m told it’s quite user-friendly. There areother options, but I narrowed down your choices based on what I'm hearing in the field.

7/6/09 Update per Ron's comment. I should have been more specific in the above paragraph. Bento is not an art management platform, but a general database. Therefore, it requires significant formatting–unlike the others here. Because of this, you can use it for all of your database needs-not just for your art inventory or contacts. Also, because of this, you can personalize it and make it look however you like.

See these related posts:

Things to look for in software
Database software for artists (list)

As I say in I’d Rather Be in the Studio! “Most of these options can handle every aspect of your art business except the detailed financial reports that a program like QuickBooks can provide.” (page 17)

So, for financial records, I recommend QuickBooks, although many people are very happy with Quicken. If you have a bookkeeper or accountant, I’d certainly ask them for their advice in this area before you purchase bookkeeping software. You want to be able to share files easily.

http://www.artbizblog.com/2009/06/bookkeeping-and-inventory-software.html

Egyptian officials to be tried in Van Gogh theft

INITIAL ARTICLE ON THEFT PRESENTED IN PREVIOUS BLOG –

Mon Sep 6, 11:48 am ET

CAIRO – Eleven culture officials from Egypt's government have been formally charged in last month's theft of a Vincent van Gogh painting from a Cairo museum that had no functioning security alarms.

The public prosecutor says he has referred the eleven Culture Ministry officials to trial on charges of negligence and harming state property. Among them is a deputy minister who says he appealed to his boss for funds to make security upgrades before the Aug. 21 theft but received little assistance.

The $50 million painting, titled "Poppy Flower," was stolen in the middle of the day from the Mahmoud Khalil Museum, where investigators found that no alarms and only seven of 43 security cameras were working.

If convicted the suspects could face three years in prison.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ml_egypt_stolen_van_gogh

Egypt culture chief sleepless over Van Gogh theft

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Posted 2010/08/24 at 7:34 am EDT

CAIRO, Aug. 24, 2010 (Reuters) — Egypt's culture minister blamed "incompetent" security staff for the theft of a $55 million Van Gogh painting from a Cairo museum and said worries for the safety of the country's art treasures are depriving him of sleep.

A guard walks at the gate of Mahmud Khalil Modern Art Museum in Cairo, Egypt, August 23, 2010. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih

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"I feel like I am working alone and that I alone spend time thinking of how to manage cultural affairs," the minister Farouk Hosni told daily paper al-Masry al-Youm on Tuesday.

"I can't work with these incompetent employees," he said. "I'm tired and I can't sleep, because I wake up in the middle of the night fearing for the artefacts and the museums."

The painting, known as "Poppy Flower" according to a statement in Arabic, was stolen on Saturday morning from Cairo's Mahmoud Khalil Museum, home to one of the Middle East's finest collections of 19th- and 20th-century art.

The museum houses works assembled by Mohammed Mahmoud Khalil, a politician who died in 1953, including paintings by Gauguin, Monet, Manet and Renoir, as well as the Dutch post-Impressionist master Van Gogh.

An early investigation of the theft showed "flagrant shortcomings" in security, with only seven out of 43 security cameras working properly, state media said.

Hosni, an abstract painter who has held the culture brief since 1987, said staff at the museum were guilty of negligence.

"The painting would have been stolen even if there were a thousand surveillance cameras, because of the negligence of the museum staff," Hosni was cited as saying by Al-Akhbar newspaper.

The culture ministry's head of fine art, Mohsen Shaalan, has been detained along with four other officials pending investigation for 19 days after being accused of "negligence and failing to carry out their employment duties."

Nine other employees were barred from travel.

Hosni said the ministry would create a central control room to monitor all museums, supervised by his cabinet, and set up a committee to review surveillance of museums across the country.

"We are currently setting up an additional 18 museums and they will all be supplied with state of the art security sensors against theft and fires," Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, said in a statement.

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre67k205-us-egypt-painting-vangogh/

OTHER INFO : http://www.interpol.int/public/workofart/default.asp

".....Zigerlig mentioned the importance of registering stolen art with databases such as Fine Art Registry. In fact, tagging and registering all of one’s artwork before obtaining insurance is an absolute must as it will reduce the risk of loss and increase the chances for recovery. Carriers who recognize the value of the Fine Art Registry system and its many additional benefits ideally should offer their clients a discount on premiums because the risk to them is much less than for insuring art that has not been tagged and registered with FAR^®."

"Edvard Munch’s paintings The Scream and The Madonna were not insured against theft when they were stolen in Norway (since recovered). In the U.S., the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston did not insure its still missing 13 masterpieces, valued at 5 hundred million dollars, when they were stolen 17 years ago. Like the Munch paintings they were insured for loss and damage, but not theft. While these are more high profile, high value pieces, it does underlie the importance of insuring beyond just loss and damage. Insuring against theft should be included in any insurance plan."

(What Happens After Stolen Artwork is Recovered By Anayat Durrani)

RECOVERED 3rd February 2010

The Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict adopted at The Hague (Netherlands) in 1954

The Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict adopted at The Hague (Netherlands) in 1954 in the wake of massive destruction of cultural heritage during the Second World War is the first international treaty with a world-wide vocation focusing exclusively on the protection of cultural heritage in the event of armed conflict.

It covers immovable and movable cultural heritage, including monuments of architecture, art or history, archaeological sites, works of art, manuscripts, books and other objects of artistic, historical or archaeological interest, as well as scientific collections of all kinds regardless of their origin or ownership.

The States that are party to the Convention benefit from the mutual commitment of more than 115 States with a view to sparing cultural heritage from consequences of possible armed conflicts through the implementation of the following measures:

• Adoption of peacetime safeguarding measures such as THE PREPARATION OF INVENTORIES, the planning of emergency measures for protection against fire or structural collapse, the preparation for the removal of movable cultural property or the provision for adequatein situ protection of such property, and the designation of competent authorities responsible for the safeguarding of cultural property;
• Respect for cultural property situated within their own territory as well as within the territory of other States Parties by refraining from any use of the property and its immediate surroundings or of the appliances in use for its protection for purposes likely to expose it to destruction or damage in the event of armed conflict; and by refraining from any act of hostility directed against such property;
• Consideration of the possibility of registering a limited number of refuges, monumental centres and other immovable cultural property of very great importance in the International Register of Cultural Property under Special Protection in order to obtain special protection for such property;
• Consideration of the possibility of marking of certain important buildings and monuments with a distinctive emblem of the Convention;
• Establishment of special units within the military forces to be responsible for the protection of cultural property;
• Sanctions for breaches of the Convention; and,
• Wide promotion of the Convention within the general public and target groups such as cultural heritage professionals, the military or law-enforcement agencies.

Learn more about the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.

FOLLOW THIS EXTRAORDINARY TALE

PARIS - Works by Pablo Picasso and Henri Rousseau have been stolen from a private villa in the south of France, in the country’s second big art robbery in less than a week. Police this weekend confirmed that some 30 works of art had been taken from the home of a private collector in the Provencal village of La Cadière d’Azur, in a haul reportedly worth at least €1m ($1.44m, £890,000).

The latest raid comes just days after thieves lifted the small pastel, Les Choristes (The Choir Singers), by impressionist Edgar Degas, from the Cantini Museum in Marseilles.

A person close to the inquiry told the Financial Times that it was still too early to say whether the two thefts were linked. But the incidents highlight deep concern in France over the illegal trade in works of art. A Modigliani initially believed to be part of the haul has since been found, police in Toulon said. The villa's French owner was holidaying in Sweden at the time of the break-in, which was discovered by the caretaker on Thursday afternoon.

Police last month uncovered a well-established and sophisticated criminal network operating at the heart of France’s respected auction house, Drouot. An auctioneer and eight commission agents, members of an elite corps from the Savoie region of south-east France, have been placed under formal investigation for organised theft.

A masterpiece by Gustave Courbet, the French realist painter, which was reported stolen in 2004, was among the treasures discovered in a police raid on Drouot warehouses and employees’ homes.

The latest theft remains shrouded in mystery, however. The owner is due to return from Sweden to take an inventory of the missing items, after which the true value of the works stolen could be established, the person close to the inquiry added.

It is believed the thieves broke into the property on Wednesday night or Thursday morning. The raid was discovered by a caretaker. A painting by Amedeo Modigliani, initially feared missing, was later found in the house, according to comments by the regional prosecutor’s office made in the Le Monde newspaper.

The investigation is being carried out by officials in nearby Marseilles, while the government’s Central Office for the Fight against Traffic in Cultural Goods is investigating the theft of the Degas painting. Les Choristes, valued at up to €800,000, is also thought to have been stolen on Wednesday – without triggering an alarm – and was discovered when the museum opened for business on Thursday.

The painting was on loan from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris for an exhibition in Marseilles which was due to close next Sunday, before travelling on to Italy and Canada.

Published: January 3 2010 18:12 | Last updated: January 3 2010 18:12 / Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010.