Frank Michael Zeidler knows what he is writing about. Born in 1952, the artist has been a painter and draftsman for 40 years and is accustomed to engaging in dialogue with the public as the chairman of the German Artists' Association. Together with the Berlinische Galerie, he organized a symposium on artists' estates in 2012. Since then, the topic has occupied him personally, as it directly affects him; around 2,500 works are stored in his studio in Potsdam. Frank Michael Zeidler has spoken at many events on the subject of artists' estates and has now published a work that is more of an essay than a guide. This is because there is no single way to handle an oeuvre, and the topic touches on our fundamental approach to art. The fact that the subject has become so critical is also due to the professionalization and democratization of artistic creation taking place at the academies.