THE MANDATE PROCESS

Procurement at this tier rewards patience, structure, and discretion. It punishes theatre. The structure below is how I honor that: five stages, each governed by a single discipline, each designed to remove a different kind of noise from the work. This is how a mandate moves from first contact to closed relationship, and what continues after.

STAGE 1 — INTAKE

Discipline: clarity.

Every mandate begins with one conversation. I respond to serious inquiry within twenty-four hours, through the channel you used to reach me. What follows is not a sales call. I need four things before I engage: what is being acquired, the budget range, the timeline, and the basis on which we can extend trust to each other. Some mandates I am well-positioned to handle. Others I decline, and I say so plainly. Nothing begins before the engagement letter is signed by both parties and the engagement fee is received.

STAGE 2 — DILIGENCE

Discipline: restraint.

The scope locked at intake becomes the search brief. I work across the channels appropriate to the object: private collections, established relationships in the relevant market, auction houses, and networks that operate below public listing. Every candidate is vetted for authenticity, provenance, condition, and clean title before it reaches your attention. You receive a written report. No more than two pages. Recommendation first, alternatives noted, everything else removed. You review. Questions are answered. Nothing moves until the decision is unambiguous.

STAGE 3 — EXECUTION

Discipline: decisiveness.

Once you have decided, I move. I negotiate on your behalf and speak with the seller directly. Your name and identifying details remain shielded unless you choose otherwise. Payment to the seller is held in escrow until the object and its documentation are verified. Shipping, insurance, customs, and condition checks in transit are coordinated through specialists vetted for the asset class. Five categories of risk are tracked at this stage: authentication, title and provenance, counterparty payment, cross-border logistics, and latent condition. Surprises are rare because the structure expects them. Contingencies for each are written into the engagement letter before the search begins.

STAGE 4 — HANDOVER

Discipline: presence.

I prefer to deliver in person. Most often this means meeting you where you are most comfortable: a private residence, a hotel suite, a restaurant where you hold standing relationships. The object is inspected one final time in your presence. The full documentation pack, including authentication certificates, provenance file, condition report, transaction records, warranties, and insurance papers, is handed over no later than twenty-four hours either side of the object itself. The mandate closes with a written acknowledgment from me, on letterhead, confirming the engagement complete. If in-person delivery is not possible, you nominate a trusted recipient and the same standards apply.

STAGE 5 — CONTINUING RELATIONSHIP

Discipline: continuity.

A completed mandate is the start of the relationship, not the end. You receive two communications from me each month and nothing more: a short note that opens the door for the next conversation, and an editorial dispatch, Protocol Notes, on the markets I operate in. No promotions. No third-party referrals. No commission relationships dressed up as recommendations. The relationship is held privately and indefinitely. Future mandates begin where the last one closed.

The form changes by mandate. The discipline does not.