You want an original by an exhibited artist, kept as painted, with a record you can keep and hand on

You are probably one of three people. A private collector who wants a painting by a named, exhibited artist rather than a studio piece. A gallery or dealer who sells attributed work and needs paperwork a customer can check. Or an art consultant placing one piece with a story on the wall a client cares most about, inside a larger scheme. In each case the painting is one of a kind and the file that travels with it matters as much as the canvas.

You buy by asking for what is available, comparing the documents, and paying for a single piece on a quote. You may be buying from another country without seeing the work first; 72% of high-net-worth collectors in the Art Basel and UBS survey had bought through a dealer's website or online viewing room without viewing the work in person, and just over half of their spending went on new and emerging artists ³.

You usually ask who painted it, what proves that, whether it will be painted again for someone else, and how a one-off travels. This page answers those in order.

Not you? If you sell made-to-order originals off a wall and re-order after a sale, read galleries & framers. If you are building a programme of twenty or more pieces to a deadline, read art consultants. If you are furnishing a whole house from the catalogue, read villas & whole-house projects.

This is the question a collector's file has to answer years later, to a buyer or an insurer who was not in the room. Among people who had not yet bought art online, 57% told Hiscox that too little was provided about quality and provenance and 58% feared buying something that was not what it claimed to be; 87% said a certificate of authenticity would make them more confident and 79% wanted more background on the artist or object ¹. A certificate on its own is thin; the provenance guides used by collectors and museums list bills of sale, exhibition catalogues and brochures, photographs and correspondence as the records that make up a work's history ⁴.

What we do. A master work by one of Siji Art Hub's senior partnered artists leaves with five things: a certificate of authenticity; its provenance; its exhibition history; a photograph of the artist with the work; and invitations to the artist's shows. These are the documents the guides describe, assembled once and shipped with the piece, so the file starts complete rather than being reconstructed later.

The context behind the artists is verifiable on this site. Siji Art Hub opened on Lüdao Lake in Foshan in 2021, holds a collection of more than 11,000 works and has run more than fifty exhibitions, with professors of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts among the exhibitors; the exhibition programme is listed by show and date. The hub's programme to date has been domestic, and we describe it as an art hub and complex, not a registered museum. We do not attach a name, a record or a reputation the documents do not carry.

Two kinds of original leave the same studio, and a collector or dealer needs to know which one is on the invoice. The catalogue is painted to order: a reference such as TA#053 is a new painting every time it is ordered, in whatever size and palette the buyer asks for, and it can be painted again after a sale. A master work is the opposite: one piece, kept as painted, not re-made.

What we do. We state on the quote which kind you are buying, and a master work is never resized, recoloured or varied, because the value you are paying for is the piece as the artist left it. If you want a one-of-a-kind painting that does not exist yet, the commission route paints an original from your reference with sketch approval first; that is a new work, not a master work, and its paperwork is the signature and certificate.

Not being able to inspect the work is the largest single reason people give for not buying art online: 75% of hesitant buyers named it as their biggest concern in Hiscox's 2020 survey ², and in the 2017 survey 80% worried the work would look different from the digital image and 77% worried about its condition; 92% said a condition report would make them more confident ¹.

What we do. Photographs before the piece is packed, not after it arrives. For a master work you see the piece itself: the whole canvas, and the photograph of the artist with the work that forms part of its file. For any catalogue piece ordered alongside it, you see progress photographs or video stage by stage and we only continue once you have approved the stage. Ask for the details you want to check, whether the signature, the edges or the surface texture, and we photograph them before the piece is packed.

What this does not replace is a condition report by an independent conservator, and we do not issue one. If your own process or your insurer requires one, arrange it on arrival; the piece is insured in transit and the tracking number is sent the moment it ships, so the inspection can be booked to a date.

A made-to-order canvas that is lost or damaged can be painted again. A master work cannot, so the buyer's questions are about insurance and packing rather than replacement. In the Hiscox survey 38% of hesitant buyers were concerned about whether damage in transit would be covered, and 33% about packaging and the method of shipment ¹.

What we do. Every consignment is shipped free and fully insured by DHL, FedEx or USPS, with the tracking number sent as soon as it leaves. You choose the finish: rolled in a strong tube for local stretching and framing; stretched; or framed and boxed with hooks supplied. A master work is shipped in the finish the artist left it, and we tell you which that is in the quote. We ship to a recipient or country other than the buyer on request, which suits a consultant delivering to a client or a dealer delivering to a customer.

If a piece arrives damaged: unpack in front of the courier where you can and have them note damaged item on the waybill, photograph the packaging and the piece before anything is discarded, send us the photographs and keep both until the claim closes. We handle the carrier claim. Catalogue pieces in the same consignment are replaced at no cost; a master work is settled through the insured claim, because it cannot be painted again.

Because a master work already exists, the sequence is shorter than a made-to-order piece and there is no painting week. The dates below are our published lead times; the date for a specific master work is confirmed in its quote.

1. Enquiry. Tell us what you are looking for: subject, size range, palette, the wall or the client it is for, and whether you need catalogue pieces alongside it. Master works are not listed with public prices, so the enquiry is how you see what is available.
2. Selection and documents. We send photographs of the pieces that fit, each with its exhibition history and the photograph of the artist with the work, so you can compare files before you compare prices.
3. Quote. Within one business day, priced per piece, with the finish it is in, the confirmed shipping date and whether it will travel with or separately from any catalogue order.
4. Photographs before packing. The piece as it will ship, plus any detail you ask for. Nothing changes on a master work at this stage; approval is of the piece as it is.
5. Certificate and file. The certificate of authenticity, provenance, exhibition history, artist photograph and show invitations are assembled and packed with the work.
6. Shipping. Free and insured, 3–7 days in transit by DHL, FedEx or USPS, tracking number sent on dispatch. Catalogue pieces ordered with it follow the usual 10–13 days door to door.

Minimum order is one piece; there is no minimum for a master work beyond the piece itself.

This is the usual shape of a consultant's or a designer's order and often of a collector's house: one wall that carries the piece with the record, and ten or forty other walls that need originals that fit the rooms. The two kinds of work come from the same studio and the same enquiry, but they are handled differently and the quote says so.

What we do. The master work is kept as painted. Everything else is painted to order from the 1,455-work catalogue in the size each wall needs, including 2 m and panoramic formats, with palettes matched to fabric, paint or stone references you send. Catalogue pieces take about a week to paint and can be varied so that a corridor or a set of bedrooms reads as related without repeating; every one is signed by its painter and carries a certificate of authenticity. Volume pricing applies from ten catalogue pieces, and the master work is priced on its own line.

The catalogue cuts below are the ones that most often sit beside an attributed piece: figurative and cultural subjects that share a register with exhibited work, quiet Textured & Plaster and Wabi-Sabi surfaces that leave the master work as the loudest thing in the room, and Impressionist landscapes for dining rooms and corridors.

A complete first email means the quote comes back complete. For a master work, send:

• What you are looking for. Subject or style, a size range in centimetres or inches, and any palette the room fixes. If it is for a client, say what the wall is and what else is going on it.
• What the file must contain. The standard set is the certificate, provenance, exhibition history, the photograph of the artist with the work and show invitations. If your own records, your insurer or your buyer need a particular form of words or an additional photograph, say so before the quote.
• Finish and destination. Whether the piece should arrive rolled, stretched or framed, and where it is going if that is not your own address.
• The rest of the scheme. Wall sizes and references for any catalogue pieces, with the deadline, so they can be painted in the same window and shipped together where the master work's own timeline allows.

You receive a quote within one business day. If you would rather start from the catalogue, the request-a-quote form takes references and sizes directly and you can add the master work in the notes.

These cuts are live counts from the catalogue and each opens the matching facet page. They are chosen for the walls around an attributed piece rather than for the piece itself: a master work is not in the catalogue and is only seen through an enquiry.

For a collector's or a client's house, Impressionist landscapes and seascapes carry the horizontal walls of dining rooms and landings, and the catalogue's 106 panoramic works list sizes up to 254 cm on the long side for a stair or a double-height wall. For a gallery or dealer, the figurative and Hyperrealism cuts are the closest in register to exhibited work and sell with the same certificate. For a boardroom or a private office, moody abstracts and Contemporary Minimalist pieces hold a wall without competing with the one piece the client chose for its record.

Every catalogue work is painted to the size you give, so the counts are of compositions, not of stock in a size; sizes are chosen per wall when you order.

A buyer of attributed work is right to check what a supplier's page implies. So that nothing on this page is read as more than it is:

• No museum registration. Siji Art Hub is an art hub and complex with a collection of more than 11,000 works and a public exhibition programme; it is not a registered museum, and we do not describe it as one.
• No international exhibition record. The hub's exhibition programme to date has been domestic. The exhibition history that ships with a master work is the record of where that piece was shown, as it stands.
• No valuations, auction records or resale forecasts. We quote a price for the piece. We do not issue independent valuations or make statements about future value.
• No independent condition report. We photograph the piece before it ships; a conservator's report is yours to arrange on arrival.
• No public prices and no stock list. Master works are quoted individually on enquiry; the attributed tier described on the artists page is not yet listed on the site.
• No changes to a master work. If you need a different size or palette, that is a catalogue or commission job, and we will say so.

What we do claim is exactly what ships: one original by a senior partnered artist, kept as painted, with its certificate, provenance, exhibition history, a photograph of the artist with the work and invitations to the artist's shows.