The Wise Donkey

Shipping is charged as a single line at checkout, separate from the price of the artwork. It covers everything between the artist's studio and your door: professional fine-art packing, international air freight, transit insurance, export clearance, and all import duties and taxes at your destination. The exact amount is shown before you confirm your order, and it is the last thing you pay — nothing is collected at the door.

Rolled is our standard. A canvas rolled into a rigid tube is the safest way to move a painting a long distance by air, and it is how most works travel. In some cases — smaller pieces in particular — a work ships flat instead, inside a rigid double-walled box, fully wrapped and cushioned. The method for this particular piece is stated in the Artwork Details section on this page. Packing is carried out by fine-art specialists, never by the artist.

Directly from the artist's studio in the MENA region. Each work is collected in person by fine-art handlers, packed to international transport standards and flown to you. Export paperwork, customs formalities and import taxes are all handled on our side — you place one order and the artwork arrives at your door.

We would rather not promise a date we cannot control. Each piece is collected from the artist, packed by hand, cleared for export and flown out, and the timing of each of those steps depends on your destination, the courier's schedule and customs at both ends. What we can promise is that you will never be left guessing: as soon as collection is scheduled we obtain an estimated delivery window and pass it straight on to you, then keep you posted at every stage until it is on your wall.

Yes. Every shipment is insured at its declared value, and the cost is already included in the shipping fee — there is no separate charge. But the protection that actually matters to you is simpler than the insurance: if the artwork is damaged, lost, or never arrives, you are refunded by us. Your payment is still held in escrow at that point. Recovering the loss from the carrier is our job, not yours.

No. Every shipment is sent delivered duty paid: import duties and taxes are calculated and settled by us before the work leaves, and that cost is already built into the figure you saw at checkout. The courier will not ask you for money on the doorstep, and no separate invoice follows weeks later.

Yes. You hear from us by email at three points: when your order is confirmed, when the work has been collected from the artist, and when it is handed to our delivery partner — that last email carries your tracking number. From there you can follow the piece yourself all the way to your door, and the final delivery is handled directly between you and the courier.

Yes — every shipment requires a signature on delivery, so please give an address where someone can receive it. Delivery itself is arranged by the courier, and your tracking number will show you when the piece is due. We suggest photographing the packaging before you open it and looking the work over the same day: your three-day inspection window opens the moment delivery is confirmed.

Yes. Every work on Nefer is a one-of-a-kind original, painted by hand. We do not sell prints, reproductions or giclée editions, and we never produce them from the works we sell. Every artist confirms to us in writing that the piece is their own, authentic, and lawfully theirs to sell.

No — all artworks are sold unframed. A frame adds considerable weight and volume to an international air shipment, and would add more to your shipping cost than the frame itself is worth. It also leaves the choice where it belongs: with you, in your room, with the painting in front of you.

It describes the physical state of the work as it stands today: surface characteristics, the natural ageing of materials, any restoration, notable texture. Small irregularities are normal in handmade art and are always disclosed. We hold our artists to the accuracy of everything in a listing — photographs, dimensions, medium, condition — and if what arrives is materially different from what was described, you are refunded.

Every listing gives the dimensions measured by the artist, to the nearest centimetre, height before width and unframed. On each painting's page, “See it on your wall” shows the work on your own wall at its real size through your phone's camera, or on a photo of your room. Treat it as a first impression rather than a precise guide. The reliable test is still the old one: mark the dimensions out on your wall with masking tape and live with the outline for a day. Paintings almost always read larger in a room than on a screen. Remember to allow for the frame you will add afterwards.

The price you see is the price. We do not discount and we do not haggle — it would not be fair to the artist, nor to the person who bought the week before. What you can rely on instead is that the figure at checkout is the whole figure: artwork, shipping, insurance and duties, with nothing to follow.

Prices are displayed and charged in the currency appropriate to your location, and the total shown at checkout is the total you pay. Any conversion your own bank applies is between you and your bank.

Every work is unique, so there is only ever one of each. Orders are honoured in the order they arrive, and a listing closes the moment a piece is sold. Occasionally a work becomes unavailable for another reason. We do not ask our artists for exclusivity — it is their work, and tying it up would not be fair to them. We do encourage them not to show a piece elsewhere while it is live with us, and to tell us the moment anything changes, but we are well aware that a work can sell in a gallery or on another platform before the listing here comes down. We would rather say so than pretend otherwise. If it happens, your order is cancelled and refunded in full at once, and we will gladly point you towards other work by the same artist.

Your payment is captured in full at checkout and held by Nefer in escrow. It is not released to the artist until the work has been delivered and your inspection window has closed. Until that moment the money is still ours to return to you.

You have a three-calendar-day inspection window that opens on confirmed delivery. If you raise no concern in that time, the sale completes and the artist is paid shortly afterwards. If you do raise one, the funds stay exactly where they are until the matter is settled.

Write to us within three days of delivery with photographs. If the work is materially different from its listing, you are refunded in full: the artwork, and the shipping, insurance and import duties you paid. Because the funds are still in escrow, there is nothing for you to chase. Minor colour variation between a screen and a hand-painted surface is not a misdescription; no two monitors render a painting the same way.

Photograph the packaging and the artwork and email us within three days of delivery. You are refunded in full, including shipping, insurance and import duties. Everything that happens after that — the claim, the paperwork, the recovery — is handled on our side. You are not asked to negotiate with a courier.

No. Each work is unique, handmade and flown across the world to reach you, so change-of-mind returns are not accepted: the sale is final unless the piece is materially not as described, or arrives damaged. This is precisely why every listing carries the dimensions, medium, condition and close photographs of the piece in full — so that the decision is made with everything in front of you. If something is still unclear, write to us before you order rather than after.

We work directly with artists we know, across the MENA region. Every submission is reviewed individually before it goes live, and meeting our criteria does not guarantee acceptance. The collection is small by choice — we would rather it stayed coherent than grew quickly.

You own the painting outright. The artist keeps the copyright in the image, as is standard practice in the art world — a sale transfers the physical work, not the right to reproduce it commercially. You are free to hang it, lend it, insure it, photograph it for your own purposes, or resell it.

All communication runs through Nefer. If you have a question about a particular work or would like to send a word to the artist, write to us at hello@nefergalerie.com and we will pass it on.