Condition reports and certificates: one object timeline, not a folder of PDFs

Condition documentation drifts the moment it leaves the object record. A 2022 report says "minor scuff lower left"; the 2024 fair packet omits it. A certificate of authenticity lists dimensions the invoice contradicts. A lender's insurer asks for photos that lived on a registrar's laptop, not in the catalogue. Each failure is the same root cause: PDFs as the system of record instead of the work timeline.

Registrar-grade documentation means condition history, authentication text, and export packets all read from one graph.

Condition entries as dated events

Each inspection — intake, pre-ship, fair return, post-install — should be a dated entry on the work with notes and photos attached. Overwriting "condition: excellent" on the main record erases history lenders need after a damage claim.

Generate condition reports from the timeline for a selected window. The PDF is a snapshot; the catalogue remains authoritative when someone adds a return inspection next month.

Photos that stay with the work

Condition photography belongs on the object, tagged to the entry it documents — not in a camera roll named IMG_4829. High-resolution files linked to the work propagate into exports and viewing rooms when policy allows, without re-uploading for every fair.

Forensic watermarks on confidential room shares are separate from registrar documentation; both should trace to the same file IDs where possible.

Certificates of authenticity from inventory facts

A COA should inherit artist, title, year, medium, dimensions, edition position, and inventory number from the work. Certification language may be customized per artist policy, but factual fields must not be retyped — typos on legal documents are expensive to unwind.

Multilingual COAs should pull translated titles from the work's title variants when you export for international collectors, with localized document headings in the recipient's language.

Consistent descriptions across documents

Pick one canonical medium string and reuse it on the condition report, customs declaration, COA, and insurance schedule. "Oil on linen" and "oil painting on canvas" may mean the same thing to curators but not to customs classifiers or adjusters comparing documents.

When framing changes, update framed dimensions on the record and regenerate outbound documents — do not maintain framed sizes only on the wall label PDF from last season.

The bottom line

Condition reports and certificates are outputs, not archives. Art.industries stores condition history, photos, and authentication exports on the object graph — generate lender packets, fair condition summaries, and COAs from live fields, and let every document an outsider sees agree with the record registrars edit daily. That is how documentation survives staff changes and actually protects the gallery when something goes wrong in transit.