The Artwork Archive migration checklist
Migrations fail on surprises, not on volume. This is the whole sequence, including the caveats — written for our importer but honest enough to use with any destination.
- 1. Export your pieces
- In Artwork Archive, export your pieces to CSV. Keep the columns in their default order and don't rename them — the preset expects Artwork Archive's fixed layout, including the split Artist First Name / Last Name columns.
- 2. Download your original image files
- Artwork Archive stores originals as downloadable files, so the CSV usually carries no image URLs. Download the Original Files for your pieces and bring them alongside the CSV — a URL-only export would leave images behind. Check a few rows before you start.
- 3. Export contacts, sales, and donations
- Each comes across as its own CSV. Contacts de-dupe on email during import, so an overlapping export is safe. Sales and donation history import as records — nothing gets re-charged.
- 4. Run the inventory import first
- Works before contacts before sales — sales rows reference works and buyers, so order matters. The Artwork Archive preset recombines the split artist name and seeds the Status mapping; confirm it at the wizard's Map step rather than trusting it blind.
- 5. Know how the status list maps
- Artwork Archive's ten statuses collapse onto our two fields. Available / Reserved / Sold / On Loan / Not for Sale map to the matching availability. The terminal ones leave inventory (ex-inventory) instead of sitting as owned: Work Destroyed → destroyed, Donated / Gifted → gift/donated, and Deaccessioned / Lost → archived — off the active roster without asserting a physical disposition.
- 6. Verify the sensitive fields
- Spot-check ten pieces: prices and currency, dimensions, and that the terminal statuses landed as ex-inventory. Dimensions carry a per-account unit (inches or cm) — we seed the metric fields, so confirm at preview if your export is in inches. Non-numeric creation dates (“c. 1965”) are left unmapped, since our year field takes a number.
- 7. Import contacts, then sales and donations
- Contacts first (so sales can attach to buyers), then transactions. Historical sales and donations land as records, not as new invoices — nothing gets re-charged.
- 8. Reconcile before you cancel anything
- Compare total piece count, total contacts, and a quarter's sales figures between systems. Keep the Artwork Archive account read-only until the numbers agree — a month of overlap is cheap insurance.
- 9. Re-point the public surfaces
- Viewing rooms, website embeds, QR labels — republish from the new system, and set up your custom domain so collector-facing links carry your name.
The step-by-step product walkthrough lives at /migrate/artwork-archive, and the honest comparison at /compare/artwork-archive-alternative. Stuck on a weird export? Ask us.