The Inventozen solution: scientific rigor combined with ease of use

A Catalogue Raisonné is the founding act of an artwork’s transmission. It is also, too often, a scattered undertaking: Excel files inherited from an assistant, photographs on an external hard drive, provenances reconstructed in a notebook, bibliographies rewritten several times over. The data exists, but it falls apart. And when the archivist steps away, the memory of the work wavers.

InventoZen was designed to put an end to this fragmentation. The platform brings together in a single environment the three stages of the Catalogue Raisonné: the scientific approach, long-term archiving, and public dissemination. It was born from the experience of an archivist who accompanied more than twenty Catalogues Raisonnés throughout their career, and continues to be shaped by the real-world practices of the foundations, estates, and expert committees that use it.

The interface was designed so that every art professional feels at home from the very first session: fields follow a natural order, and the formats expected by institutions are built in from the start. No prior technical setup is required. A foundation director, an artist, or a researcher can familiarise themselves with the platform and enter their first work within minutes. The scientific rigour is embedded in the architecture. The experience itself remains simple, fluid, and focused on what matters most: the work.

Each work is documented according to the complete scholarly apparatus expected by institutions: provenance, exhibition history, bibliography, authentication status, condition report, dating, dimensions, signature, inscriptions, current location, and related documentation. The fields were designed with art historians and committees, not adapted from a generic software tool. Each entry is built to stand the test of time: references are structured to meet the standards of an auction house, a museum, or an authentication committee, today and twenty years from now. This level of rigour is what sets a Catalogue Raisonné apart from a simple inventory.

Beyond data entry, InventoZen organises the collection as a searchable, enduring corpus. The location tracking system records every movement of a work across owners, exhibitions and borders. Versions are preserved, sources traced, images stored in high definition. Hosting is secured in Europe and compliant with digital preservation standards.

What sets this approach apart: the data belongs to the foundation or estate. It is exportable, structured in recognised formats, and designed to outlast any evolution of the tool itself. A Catalogue Raisonné is built over decades, and the archive must be able to survive it.

This is where InventoZen most clearly distinguishes itself from existing archiving software. The documentary work does not remain locked within an internal database: each Catalogue Raisonné can be published on a dedicated website, in French, English, Dutch and Spanish, accessible from any country without installing software. Researchers consult, collectors verify, institutions cite.

An integrated e-shop module allows, when the estate or foundation wishes, to activate a direct commercial dimension, selling works, editions or publications, without relying on a third-party provider. The archive thus becomes a living reference point for the market.

More than one hundred and fifty Catalogues Raisonnés are currently accompanied by the InventoZen team, including those of Jean Miotte, Gérard Schneider and Roberto Matta. Each project has enriched the tool. Feedback from committees, historians and foundations is continuously integrated into the platform’s development.

For foundations, estates and established artists who regard the documentation of their work as an act of cultural transmission, InventoZen offers a unique environment: the scientific rigour a Catalogue Raisonné demands, the accessibility an art professional expects, and the international reach a body of work deserves.