In the most commonly understood sense, the artist's estate is the physical products of their process and intangible rights to them, along with any documentation. It is separate from other material assets or purely private items.

Now that we know what it is, how do we manage it? This is a series of questions from the book:

• In what condition is the estate? For example: Is it catalogued and stored? How recognized is it, and what is its objective quality?
• In which structure should the estate be administered? i.e., Was the intention of the deceased artist verbalized? Profit or nonprofit definition of objectives?
• Who should administer the estate?
• What objectives do I want to achieve through working with the estate in the short, middle, and long term?
• How do I finance the achieving of these objectives?
• Should the estate be set up for an indefinite or definite period?

It is my strong feeling that every artist's plan for their work should be in writing and should be shared with anyone who works with the artist during their lifetime. A last will and testament should be written, and tax and legal advice should be sought regarding the structure of the artist's estate. We can refer you to local estate attorneys who can help you with this. As this deals with financial matters and would be very individual, we will not be covering that here.

Firstly, the artworks in the estate should be secured after the artist's death. Most of the time, the art is in their studio, home, in storage spaces, with friends, at museums, or with gallerists. Bringing all the works together can provide an overall assessment of the work's quality, which goes hand in hand with cataloguing the artworks. Building a catalogue raisonné should record the following:

• Title, description, year of creation
• Material and dimensions
• Inventory number and photo documentation for the work
• Requirements for conserving, storing, and exhibiting the artwork
• Information about the process of creating the artwork and materials used
• Current condition of work
• Exhibition catalogues
• Assessments and insurance documents
• Selling prices achieved at auctions or private sales
• Press articles and photos
• Information about copyright

There are specialized software programs available for cataloguing works; these data sets can then be used as the basis for a catalogue raisonné. One recent example is the estate of artist Warren Dennis. They have done a tremendous job of cataloguing and recording his works so that gallerists and museums can see all of his work, request it for exhibition, and private collectors can purchase from the estate.

That being said, an example from the book is Fred Williams' estate, which was run by his wife, Lyn Williams. She was never greedy and realized that the art business is a supply and demand relationship. She controlled the supply of his art. Fred died of cancer and very steadfastly signed any works without a signature, earmarked works to be sold first, and got all his affairs in order before he passed. Lyn teaches us that we should "follow as closely as we can to do what the artist would have done with his own artworks and try not to make decisions on the basis of money."

She did go international and donate some of his works to museums. A word of caution here: museums are very particular about what they take in. They need to be included in your plans so they can tell you if they want to accept your work or not. I cannot stress this point enough.

The book is 300 pages long; I cannot possibly lay everything out here. But I think I have at least pulled enough information together to help those interested in starting to ask questions and make a plan now.

There is no single answer or blueprint for how to administrate an artist's lifetime of work after their death, but the best architect is the artist themselves.