The Idolaters: loan terms

These terms apply to membership of The Idolaters, the loan programme run by Flying Kiwi B.V., Tuinstraat 16, 5427 PR Boekel, the Netherlands. Chamber of Commerce (KvK) 84845929, VAT NL863408631B01. Contact: write to the studio. They apply alongside the general terms of the shop; where the two differ on a point about membership, this page wins.

What membership is

You pay a quarterly amount and one original painting hangs in your home. Every quarter it is exchanged for another. The painting is lent to you, not sold and not rented towards ownership. It stays the property of the studio until you buy it, and until that moment it cannot be sold, pledged, lent on or taken by anyone else's creditors.

Membership is personal and cannot be transferred to someone else.

Works in the programme are the canvases of 100 by 80 cm and 80 by 60 cm. Larger works are for sale only and are not lent out.

Joining

All amounts on this page are in euros and include 21% Dutch VAT, the deposit included.

Membership is open to addresses in the Netherlands only. The work hangs at the address you give, it is checked out at that address, and it comes back from there; the studio does not lend across the border. That is a different line from the 100 km below, which decides only how the work travels.

You pay the first quarter in advance and a deposit of €100. You give your name, address, email and telephone number, and the studio may ask to see identification before a work leaves. The work is delivered to the address you gave and nowhere else.

Membership begins on the day you receive the work and runs to the next Switch Day. There are four Switch Days a year, at the end of January, April, July and October, and they are the same for every member.

The number of places is limited to one less than the number of works available, so that there is always something to draw from, and there may be a waiting list.

Paying for the next quarter

You pay the first quarter in the shop. For each quarter after that the studio sends you a payment request by email, ahead of the Switch Day it covers. Nothing is collected automatically and there is no direct debit: a quarter is paid because you pay that request.

If the request is not paid, the membership ends at that Switch Day and the work comes back by the route it came, as it does when you end the membership yourself.

The deposit

The €100 is held for as long as you are a member, not per work, and is returned within fourteen days of the last work coming back undamaged. If you buy a work, you may put the deposit towards the price instead of having it returned.

If a work comes back damaged, what it costs to repair is taken from the deposit first. If the damage costs more than that, the rest is invoiced. If it costs less, the difference is returned.

Which work you get

You do not choose your work, and neither does the studio. At each Switch Day the works are drawn by lot, in the same way for every member. Works that are hanging in another member's home are not in the draw; they go back in only when that member returns them.

You never receive a work you have had before. The studio keeps the record of which works have hung with you and leaves those out of your draw.

Exchanging

Exchanging is part of membership and happens every quarter. There are three ways:

• At the studio. You come to Boekel on the Switch Day, hand one back and take the next. No charge.
• At your door, if you live within 100 km of the studio. The studio brings the next work and takes the last one back, for €31 per exchange. This happens on one round in the week of each Switch Day, not on a date of your choosing.
• By carrier, if you live further away in the Netherlands. Exchanging happens every quarter, the same as for everyone else. Carriage both ways is at your cost, arranged by the studio, and insured. Sending a stretched canvas is not cheap; coming to Boekel yourself costs nothing.

A work cannot be kept beyond its quarter. If you do not want to give it back, you buy it; that is the only way it stays with you.

If a work is not exchanged and not bought, membership ends and the work returns to the studio.

Where the work may hang

Indoors, at the address on file, hung securely on a wall that can carry it. Keep it out of direct sunlight, away from radiators and out of damp rooms. Dust it with a dry soft cloth and nothing else: no water, no cleaning products, no varnish, no frame that is fixed to the canvas.

Nothing may be changed about the work, including the sides, the back, the stretcher and the signature.

If you move, tell the studio before the work moves with you. If the work is to hang anywhere other than your home, ask first.

If something happens to it

The studio insures the works it lends out. Tell the studio as soon as anything happens, with photographs, and leave the work as it is until you hear back.

Ordinary traces of hanging are the studio's concern and cost you nothing. Damage or loss through carelessness, or through breaking the rules above, is yours, up to the value of the work as shown on its page on the day it happened. Theft and fire are covered by the insurance, provided you report them to the studio and, where it applies, to the police.

While a work is with you it is not covered by your own household insurance, and you do not need to insure it.

Buying the work

At any point you can decide that a work is not going back. The amount you paid in membership over your last four quarters comes off the price, and the deposit may come off as well. That credit can go towards the work hanging in your home or towards any other work that is for sale.

A work can only be bought by the person it is hanging with. While a work is on loan to you, you are the only one who can buy it, and that stays so for as long as it hangs there. While it is on loan to someone else, it is not for sale, not to another member and not to anyone else. Works that are in the studio are for sale to anyone.

The price is the price on the work's page on the day you decide. Prices change over time; neither of us can hold the other to an older one.

New work is shown to members before it goes into the shop, so that a member can buy it before anyone else can.

Ownership passes when the purchase is paid in full. The right to withdraw from a purchase, and everything else about buying, is set out in the terms of the shop.

What you may and may not do with it

Hang it, live with it, photograph it in your own home and show those photographs. That is all fine and it is the point.

What is not: lending it on, selling it, using the image commercially, reproducing it in any form, or presenting yourself as its owner.

Ending membership

You can end your membership before any Switch Day, and the work comes back on that Switch Day by the same route it came. Amounts already paid for a quarter that has started are not refunded; the deposit is.

The studio can end a membership on the same terms, and will say why.

If a work is not returned, the studio asks for it in writing with a deadline of fourteen days. After that the work is invoiced at the price on its page, less the deposit.

Your right to withdraw

You have 14 days to withdraw from your membership without giving a reason. The period runs from the day you pay, or from the day you receive the work if that is later.

Tell the studio within those 14 days and return the work within fourteen days of telling us. You get back everything you paid, including the quarter and the deposit. The cost of returning the work is yours.

Your details

Your name, address and contact details are used to deliver the works, to keep the register of which work is where, and to reach you about Switch Days. They are not passed to anyone else. The privacy policy sets out the rest, including how long details are kept and how to have them removed.

The studio keeps a record of which work hung where and when. If a work is later sold, that record may be mentioned as part of its history, without your name, unless you tell us you would rather it was not mentioned at all.

Changes to these terms

These terms can change. You are told before a Switch Day if they do, and the version you agreed to keeps applying until the end of the quarter you are in. If you do not agree with a change, you can end your membership at that Switch Day.

Law

Dutch law applies. Disputes go to the competent court in the district of Oost-Brabant, unless the law gives you the right to another court. If any part of these terms turns out not to hold, the rest stays in force.