Artsinventering

Artsinventering is the systematic survey and documentation of artworks owned or managed by an organization or site. It is used by museums, schools, municipalities, cultural institutions, and private companies to create a centralized, verifiable record of their art assets. The process typically covers both public art installed in buildings or outdoor spaces and works in collections.

Key elements of an artsinventering include metadata such as title, artist, creation date, medium, dimensions, provenance, current location, condition, conservation history, insurance value, ownership, and rights. The methodology usually involves defining scope and criteria, conducting a physical survey, photographing works, assembling standardized metadata, validating records, and storing them in a digital database with regular updates.

Outputs of an artsinventering are a searchable inventory, condition reports, maintenance and conservation plans, acquisition and deaccession records, and risk assessments. There are different types of inventories, including public art inventories for artworks in public spaces and collection inventories for museums, libraries, universities, and corporate collections.

Benefits include improved asset management, budgeting and insurance, compliance with legal and ethical requirements, increased transparency, and better public accessibility to information about art holdings. Challenges can include fragmented or incomplete historical data, varying metadata standards, language or cataloging differences, privacy and copyright considerations, and limited institutional resources for ongoing updates.

In practice, artsinventering often forms part of broader cultural heritage or asset-management policies. In Nordic contexts, it is commonly used to document and safeguard public art and to support responsible stewardship of cultural assets.