Why records are kept
Collectors sometimes ask why a gallery cannot delete everything the moment a sale completes. UK law requires art market participants to keep certain records for regulators and auditors , including HMRC. Retention is a legal duty, not a preference to hoard your data.
Legal duty, not optional filing
Dealers who qualify as art market participants under UK money-laundering regulations must apply customer due diligence, keep records of what they did, and make them available on request from regulators or auditors. That includes identity and transaction information for sales in scope , which is why you were asked to use Proofenance in the first place.
Proofenance helps the dealer assemble a coherent file per sale (checks, decisions, payments, notes) so they are not relying on scattered emails when questions arise months or years later.
HMRC and audits
HMRC regulates many art market participants. An investigation or compliance visit may ask the dealer to demonstrate that they identified the customer, applied the right level of diligence, and kept evidence for the required period. Without retained records, the dealer cannot defend the sale , and may face penalties.
From the Collector's perspective, retention supports a dealer who can show they handled your purchase properly. It is the same reason banks keep records: not because they want your data forever, but because regulators require proof of proper process.
Staff training and gallery governance
Retention is not only about your passport scan or payment proof. When auditors or regulators review a dealer, they usually ask for two layers of evidence: gallery governance , who is trained, who may approve high-risk sales, and how policies are applied , and sale-level detail , the checks, decisions, and payment trail for the work you are buying.
UK rules expect art market participants to train relevant staff and keep records of completion. A dealer should be able to show which team members took AML and compliance training, when they refreshed it, and how that maps to their role , not only that your sale was handled correctly on the day. Auditors routinely ask for those training records alongside transaction files.
That is a useful signal for you as a collector: the gallery works to standards that meet the level regulations require, not one person's inbox habits. Dealers on Proofenance can evidence staff training and sign-off in the platform as well as each sale's ProofMarked record, gallery or dealer governance and defensible detail about your purchase, kept together for when questions arise later.
How long records are kept
Retention periods follow AML and record-keeping rules (often measured in years from the end of the business relationship or transaction, depending on circumstance). Proofenance supports time-limited storage and deletion when the dealer is permitted to remove material . See our data lifecycle description for technical detail.
Data storage, export, and lifecycle →
Deletion and your rights
Retention for AML does not remove your rights under data-protection law. You may ask the dealer what they hold and raise deletion requests where the law allows. Some material may need to stay until the legal retention period ends; the dealer should explain that clearly.
Proofenance is built to evict data when the dealer is no longer required to keep it, rather than leaving copies indefinitely in informal storage.
Why this connects to your security
Keeping records in a controlled platform (with access logs and encryption) is safer than keeping them in inboxes forever. Retention and security work together: the dealer must keep evidence, and you benefit when that evidence lives in an auditable system instead of forwarded PDFs.