About the practice

ArtisDomus is a cultural strategy practice. It helps owners solve their problems through culture. The problem might be a succession, a collection that has outgrown the way it is run, or a building that has to mean something to the people who use it.

Published by ArtisDomus, written by Polina Surina.

What the practice is for

The owner’s problem comes first. Art is one of the tools.

Most people who buy art for a building, a brand or a family start with the object. The practice starts one step earlier. What is the owner trying to achieve, and what would success look like? Buying is one possible answer. Sometimes the answer is a written policy, a programme or a partnership with an institution, and the purchase comes later or not at all.

The other half of the work is translation. An artist, a collector, an owner, a hotel operator, a foundation, a museum and a business each describe the same object in their own way. The practice finds terms they can all agree on, and builds a structure that still works after the meeting.

The distinction

Advisor, curator, designer, strategist: who pays sets them apart.

An art advisor finds and buys works for a client. A curator selects and arranges works that already exist. An interior designer builds a room and fits works into it. A cultural strategist starts from the owner’s goal and decides what culture should do about it. That may involve buying, though the work often starts elsewhere.

The fee shapes the advice. When an advisor earns more as the client spends more, the advice leans towards buying. This practice is paid by the owner. It takes no commission from a seller and passes on every discount it negotiates.

Advisor or strategist · Glossary. The four roles, who pays each one, and what that changes.

Practice areas

Owners come to the practice with questions in four areas.

Each area has a page listing its reference entries.

What the practice turns down

The practice turns down five kinds of work, and says so up front.

1. A brief to find a single work. Finding one picture is a transaction. The practice is hired for the larger structure the picture belongs to.
2. Resale brokerage. Selling works on the secondary market for a percentage is a separate trade. The practice leaves it to those who do it.
3. Decoration. Filling walls to a budget and a delivery date is a different business, done well by people who do only that.
4. Commission from a seller. No rebate, no discount kept back and no introducer’s fee. The fee comes from the owner.
5. Work whose reputational risks cannot be checked. Deciding whom to turn down is part of the job.

The practice also takes a limited number of engagements each year, because one person leads each of them.

How an art advisor is paid, and where the conflicts sit · Reference. What auction houses publish, what advisors keep to themselves, and what the fourth refusal removes.

Who does the work

Polina Surina founded the practice and leads each engagement herself.

She reads and answers every enquiry, and her name is on the written work an owner decides on. This also sets a limit: the practice takes on only as many engagements as one person can lead.

She advises in Paris, Malta, the United Kingdom, Qatar and the Gulf.

Polina Surina, founder · Her background, her training and how she works. Qualifications and competencies · Her doctorate, her training in real estate and the art market, and what she advises on in each area.

Reference library

The reference library covers authenticity, export, tax, insurance, succession and governance.

Reference library · All the entries. Glossary · Key terms, each with a definition.