Terms & Conditions

OST ART GALLERY - Terms & Conditions

These Terms & Conditions serve as an agreement between the OST member/buyer and OST and OST Art Gallery. The parties enter into this agreement in good faith, and for the purpose of making artistic works available from willing sellers/artists/creators, to willing buyers.

Definitions:

UBUNTU PLANET (UP) - Non-profit company registered in the Republic of South Africa; the founding entity of the ONE SMALL TOWN initiative.

ONE SMALL TOWN (OST) - ONE SMALL TOWN INTERNATIONAL - LLC, registered in Florida, USA; a subsidiary of UP, established for the purpose of implementing and managing various aspects of the OST initiative.

OST Platform - Stable and secure IT hub and blockchain-like environment, which manages all activity relating to OST, including memberships, tokens, digital wallets, businesses, projects, community activities, interaction between OST towns, etc.

OST Art Gallery / OST Gallery / Gallery - Online art gallery on the OST platform and physical gallery in OST towns, managed by OST.

Online gallery - The OST online gallery, similar to an online store or auction facility, where OST members can bid on works of art that are displayed.

Physical gallery - A physical OST art gallery located in a specific OST location, where artist/sellers from the area display their works. The works from such galleries are placed on the OST online gallery for global display and sales.

Work / the Works - Any work of art, in any medium or format, on offer in the OST gallery. The work can be visual, audio-visual, or any other format that has been accepted by OST Gallery curator and management team to display and sell.

Buyer - Any Ost member who makes a bid or successfully buys any work from any OST gallery, whether it is on line or in a physical gallery.

Artist - Any artist who has willingly placed their work/s in any OST Gallery.

Seller - Any owner of a work / works purchased on the OST online art gallery, and who is selling such works through the OST gallery. The seller may have works that was not purchased through OST gallery. In such cases, the original artist will be traced and notified of the OST sales procedures, which include receiving a royalty for each sale and re-sale of their original work/s.

Royalty recipient - If the original artist is deceased, all effort will be made to trace the closest living blood relative or spouse of the artist, to receive the royalty on behalf of the artist. If such close blood relative cannot be found within 12 months, the 10% royalty payable to artist, will be retained by the OST gallery for community development projects, focusing on arts and cultural activities, which may include the upgrade and improvement of the specific OST gallery.

Retained Royalties / Undistributed Royalties - The portion of royalties retained for the artists by gallery, where the artist cannot be found or located or the closest living relative of artist cannot be located. Such royalties will be utilised by the gallery for the improvement of the gallery and / or the development of arts and culture activities in the specific ONE SMALL TOWN.

Owner - Anyone who has purchased any work/s from the OST gallery and is the current holder and owner of the work.

Listed Price - Often referred to as Reserve Price in the art world. The selling price of the work which appears in the online gallery, and physical gallery, with respect to the work.

Offer - A bid made by an OST member on the OST online gallery.

Digital copies - Photographic prints of any work/s in the OST gallery.

Replicas / Prints - A printed copy of the work either as a photographic print or canvass print, silkscreen print, or any other method, or material used to create a copy of the original work. Replicas may be the same size as the original or they may vary in size based on the decision of the artist.

Auction period / period - Exact dates and times allocated for OST gallery auctions online.

Ancillary costs - Postage, shipping, packaging, insurance, security, any other costs that may accrue from services requested by buyer, in addition to the listed price, or costs that may be required to securely deliver the work to the buyer.

He/she/they - refer to individuals both singular and plural or group of individuals.

The following Terms & Conditions apply to all sales of goods on the online OST Art gallery and in physical OST galleries.

Sales – Shipping – Packaging

All sales of the works are final, no refunds will be made.
Refunds will only be considered if the work is proven to be substantially damaged or a forgery.
The purchased items will only be prepared for collection or shipping once full payment has been received by gallery.
Insurance, Packaging, Postage and Shipping costs, or any other ancillary costs are not included in the listed price.
Buyers are free to arrange their own shipping, in which case they must notify the specific gallery and provide the curator with full details for the arrangements to be made.
Special packaging can be arranged by gallery, upon request from the buyer.
Such special packaging will be quoted and charged in addition to other ancillary costs.
All Works are displayed in the OST Gallery only by consent of the artist/seller who is under agreement with OST.
All works sold will remain on display in the online gallery even after the sale of the work, to allow potential buyers to make an offer to the new owner.
The continued display of previously sold works serves as a historic record of the success of each gallery.
The new owner may decide not to sell the work, in which case a “not for sale” notice will be displayed next to the work online.
The work will only be removed from the online gallery if requested by the owner under specific conditions, and for specific reasons that do not have to be disclosed by the new owner to the gallery or OST.
Sales of works in physical OST Galleries, will be recorded and updated online to display the current status of the work.
The owner may choose to leave the work on display in the physical art gallery for a period of time. In such cases a separate agreement will be reached between owner and gallery regarding the details.
Owner may be requested by gallery to contribute towards ancillary costs such as security, insurance, or other.
If such costs are prohibitive for the gallery, the owner will be required to cover such monthly or annual costs.
All sales are done under the strictest and secure privacy conditions. The name of new owner will only be displayed with consent of the new owner.

Listed Price and New price

The listed price includes all commissions, royalties and agency fees, but it does not include postage, packaging or insurance, and any other ancillary fees.
After the sale of the work, the listed price will automatically change to the new price, which is the total of the latest sold price, plus 30% of that price.
This will be the new minimum listed price that includes 10% artist royalties and 20% administration costs.
Buyers can make an offer on the work at any time online.
It is up to the owner of the works to accept the price offered or not to accept it.
The owner can choose to reduce the listed price of their work to any price he/she chooses, if they need to sell the work urgently.
In such a case the owner will instruct the gallery in writing, indicating the required price to be displayed.
The final decision to sell always resides with the owner of the works.
Owner can instruct the OST gallery via email, to change the listed price of their work at any time.

Listings of New Works – And Auctions of New Works

New works added to the displays in OST Galleries will be placed on auction on a regular basis. This applies to both physical and online galleries.
Bidding on new works is only done online, not in physical stores.
The frequency of such auctions will be determined by the curator, based on the volume of art coming into the specific gallery.
New works will be displayed online and go through a pre-auction, promotional period which is determined by the gallery.
The purpose of the pre-auction promotional period is to create global awareness of the new works about to become available.
All works are launched showing the reserve price / listed price.
Once the auction becomes live online, anyone can make a bid on the work.
Each bid is secret and no one can see what the other buyers are bidding.
The period of each auction will be a minimum of 3 days and maximum 14 days. Each gallery will decide how long it wants the auction to last.
Auction periods which include dates and times, will be clearly indicated on each gallery website, and alongside each work, to ensure that every bidder can see the period details clearly.
Bidding will end strictly according to the displayed auction period.

NFT & Digital Certificates

Upon submission to the OST Gallery, each work is allocated a unique QR code or other unique marker, for two reasons:
1. to turn it into a physical NFT (non-fungible token);
2. to create a digital certificate of authenticity of the work itself.

The NFT code becomes the digital certificate which is passed on to each new owner during the sale of the work, as proof of authenticity.
It also ensures that the artists receive their royalties from the sale of their work.
Owners may choose to sell the works in private without the OST Gallery platform, in which case the chain of custody will be broken, and future owners will not be able to claim or prove the authenticity of the works they purchased.

Digital NFTs – Approved Copies of the Works

Every work on display may be photographed or copied in some way to create digital or printed replicas of the work.
The number of digital copies will be determined on a case by case basis in agreement with the artist.
The copies/prints will be numbered as is customary in the art and photographic world. For example: If the artist chooses to create 12 prints of their work, the prints will be numbered – 1/12; 2/12; 3/12, etc.
Such copies/digital copies will also be converted into NFTs, each one with its own unique code of authenticity.
Photographic copies of sculpture, pottery, or any other three-dimensional works may also be photographed and offered as digital NFTs.
Each NFT digital copy is a unique, authentic, identifiable copy of the original work.
These digital NFT copies are sold in the same way as any other work, with the same terms and conditions.
An additional NFT option is a pure Digital NFT, where no prints of the work are made, but merely an approved high quality photographic image of the work, which becomes the pure Digital NFT. In such cases, there can only be ONE digital NFT of the work.

OST Warranty

OST will do everything in its power and to the best of its capacity to protect the works in the physical gallery and online environment.

Insurance

Buyer is responsible for arranging his own insurance for the work/s during transit, or OST gallery may arrange such insurance and bill the buyer accordingly.

Indemnity

Buyers, new owners and artists hereby indemnify OST, the gallery, its agents, representatives, and any members of OST staff, against any legal action regarding the authenticity of the work, damage or theft of the works, during packaging and shipping process, act of God, or due to unforeseen or unexpected circumstances, or any other situation over which OST had no control.

Entire Agreement

These Terms & Conditions constitute the entire sales agreement between OST Gallery and buyer. No amendments additions of alterations will be valid unless agreed to in writing and duly signed by both parties.

By placing a BID or making an offer on any works on the online OST Gallery, the buyer agrees to all Terms & Conditions and will not challenge or raise any disputes after payment has been made, unless such dispute is in accordance with point number 2 in section Sales – Shipping – Packaging.