Commission an Art Appraisal
A well-written art appraisal not only prepares you to deal with professional buyers, but also opens new opportunities. Many people assume that an auction house will always offer the best value for their object, but that is often not true. You need to consider (and understand) an adjusted value estimate, the calculation of insurance costs, fees for catalog illustrations, buy-back reserve fees, and other extra charges and conditions typically subtracted from the hammer price of an auction sale. An informative art appraisal alerts you to these possible charges in clear language and also helps you think creatively about other options, including museum donation, gift to charity, and other measures that can help reduce your tax burden.
Selling a fine work of art without an appraisal is a lot more difficult than selling real estate when you have no knowledge of the local real estate market. To begin with, inspiring works of Asian art have an aesthetic quality and a history that are difficult even for Ph.D.’s to appreciate and explain. In addition, the art market is quite unlike the real estate market, in that it is mysterious, difficult to learn about, and subject to significant fluctuation. You can’t just look up the previous sales records for the object you wish to sell (or buy). These important pieces of knowledge, however, are provided in a professional art appraisal.
A professional art appraisal report usually provides you with the crucial information about your art work you need to know in working with an auction house or dealer. Many owners are overwhelmed by dealers who do not take the time to explain unfamiliar terminology from the worlds of Chinese aesthetics and modern art sales. A knowledgeable owner, educated about the object as well as how objects like it have fared on the market in the recent past, stands a much better chance of profit when negotiating from a position of strength.
Have you received a letter from an auction house that is vague or more complicated than you expected? Don’t panic! The art appraisal report prepared by our Asian art specialists will provide all the information you need to help you sell your art work successfully.
Find a Qualified Art Appraiser
The qualifications of an art appraiser is crucial. Before you commit yourself to an appraisal, you need to make sure that your investment on professional services is worthy. Before you hire an appraier, you need to find out if the appraiser has the qualifications for the assignment, or if s/he has a set of sepcial skills in dealing with Asian art. An appraisal is useless if the appraiser fails to identify the artist of a painting or deciper the names of the artist written in the carving scripts. An appraisal is misleading if the appraiser heavily rely on the identification of the artist's name on the painting without analyzing the artistic merits (brushstrokes, ink quality and shading techniques, choice of medium, etc) of the painting. Does your appraiser know the basics of Asian art? Does your appraiser read Asian languages, understand classical Chinese scripts, and have the ability to conduct research in a Japanese, Korean and Chinese context? Does your appraiser have the ability to separate a fake from an original? Does your appraiser know how to rank an artist among his equals? Doubtless to say, the value conclusion of a fine original painting differs signifcantly from that of a fine reproduction "in the style" or "after" an original painting by the same artist. A forged painting in the name of a master by a less capable hand is worthless. If your appraiser lacks any of these skills, the value conclusion presented by such appraisal will be less trustworthy. The only way to find a truthful fair market value of your Asian art work is to hire a qualified art appraiser.
We are qualified Asian art specialists with a Ph.D. in either Chinese art or Japanese Art, and training in prestigious universities in the United States. We treat every owner individually and provide original research about each individual object. Our work is based on years of experience in appraisal as well as more than twenty-five years of professional experience with Asian art objects, doctoral training in Chinese art, history, and culture, and original published research in the field. Our Art Appraisal is designed to help you meet your specific goals at the minimum cost.
Our Self-contained Art Appraisal is designed to help our clients meet the IRS requirements for tax deduction. Follong the IRS rules in appraisal preparation, the typical appraisal report presents an identification of the art work, description and analysis of its value features, and a carefully calculated and well-supported fair market value for the objec. Our art appraiser are qualified professionals for any IRS-related appraisal assignment.
We care about you and your art exclusively. As professional, independent art appraisers, we represent only you and your art work. If interested, please Contact Us, or call us at (609) 688-6891.
