Code of ethics
Adopted by the Board of Directors. These bind our directors, our staff, and every researcher and contractor engaged by us. They are conditions of employment and conditions of accepting a gift.
To artists
We record people, not assets. Artists appear on their own terms, with their consent, and may review and correct what we hold about them at any time. We never charge an artist to be counted and never make inclusion contingent on sales, representation, education or reputation.
To the public
The census and its findings are published free, complete and permanent, with no paywall and no embargo. Our data is open for reuse and citation, including by people who disagree with us. Corrections are made in the open, dated and described, and earlier versions remain retrievable.
To rigour
Every publication states plainly what it has established, what remains uncertain, and what evidence would settle the difference. Results that undercut our own arguments are published on the same terms and with the same prominence as results that support them.
To independence
The organisation, its directors and its researchers hold no inventory, brokerage interest, commission arrangement or advisory relationship in any artist, estate, dealer or asset class under examination. Personal holdings are disclosed to the Board and trigger recusal from the related work.
To our supporters
Support buys the work's existence and nothing else: no advance sight, no review, no influence on findings. No supporter is exempt from being a subject. We publish figures on markets in which our own funders hold positions, and disclose that overlap inside the publication.
To disclosure
Every funder is acknowledged by name or, at the funder's election, as an anonymous gift of a stated size. Anonymity is available as to identity and never as to existence. Any restriction attached to a gift is disclosed in full, whether or not the donor is named.
To good governance
All compensation, including that of founders and principal researchers, is approved by disinterested directors against external benchmarking and recorded in the minutes, with the interested party absent from the vote. Finances and funders are reported annually.
To honest solicitation
We seek support for work we are already doing. We do not construct a purpose, a history or an affiliation in order to match a funder's priorities, and we decline gifts we could not describe publicly without compromising our independence or the appearance of it.
This code is amendable only by the Board in a recorded vote. Every amendment is published alongside the version it replaces.