Original Research and Innovative Appraisals

Once in a while, and these occasions don’t occur with great frequency, the personal property appraiser is asked to take on an assignment for which there is no precedent, no standards set by USPAP, no guidelines provided by his or her professional association, and very little reference to the subject in other disciplines. Such a situation arose earlier this year when we were approached by the director of a trust to provide:

 A. fair market value appraisal

B. replacement value appraisal

C. fair market/replacement value leasing fee 

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The above is an excerpt from an article by Elin Lake-Ewald, Ph.D, ASA, RICS, published in the Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies, (c) Foundation for Appraisal Education, 2010.

To read the complete article please click here:

Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies 2010 Original Research and Innovative Appraisals

For Appraisers Only: Responses to Some FAQs

“How can I persuade a reluctant dealer to provide a value on the work of an artist he represents?” My Opinion: We have a policy in our office. Do not ask a dealer for a value unless you have researched it first yourself. The research usually begins with an auction search, Googling information and utilizing your art and antiques reference library of art and antiques. When you decide you have a pretty good handle on the fair market price you can then call the dealer and say “I have checked auction prices on your artist, Billy Brown, and it appears paintings of his from the 1960s that are about 36 x 48 inches sell for $2,000. That doesn’t seem nearly enough to me in this market. After all, he has had a number of exhibitions here and inEurope. I want to do justice to your artist with an accurate value.”

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The above is an excerpt from an article by Elin Lake-Ewald, Ph.D, ASA, RICS, published in the ASA Personal Property Journal, Autumn 2008 / Winter 2009.

To read the complete article please click here:

PPJ Vol 17 (34) 2008 2009 For Appraisers Only - Responses to some FAQs

State of the Art in the Summer of ’08

I propose that the upcoming Olympics inBeijingshould introduce a new category: art show attendance as an all-weather, all-terrain endurance event. I noted that in one week alone in Manhattan this spring there were ten shows, none of them small, and all but one eulogizing the glories of contemporary art. And there were panel discussions, and special events, and video screenings and Chelsea block parties with art and artist film screenings and tours and late night gallery openings. To add to our agony (speaking of feet), a new wave has descended upon us, enlarging the scope of attendance for those who take their art straight (meaning upright, not seated).

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The above is an excerpt from an article by Elin Lake-Ewald, Ph.D, ASA, RICS, published in the ASA Personal Property Journal, Summer 2008.

To read the complete article please click here:

PPJ Vol 17 2008 Summer State of The Art in The Summer of '08

Art, The Appraiser and Econometrics

Articles in professional journals are presumed to be weighty matter – informational sentences that open for the reader insight into a subject about which he or she knows little if anything, and for which enlightenment is sought. This article is on what at first may seem to be a subject far from that of fine art appraising – Econometrics. It’s a hotter topic than you might think initially, but it has been coming up more and more on the pages of newspapers and journals regarding art and art prices.

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The above is an excerpt from an article by Elin Lake-Ewald, Ph.D, ASA, RICS, published in the ASA Personal Property Journal, Spring/Summer 2007.

To read the complete article please click here:

PPJ Vol 17 (12) 2007 Spring Summer Art the Appraiser and Econometrics

Damage/Loss Appraisals: Part II - From Average to Aberrational

The “silly question” is sometimes the first step towards understanding and solving a problem in the field of damage/loss. Never be afraid to ask, never apologize for asking. Let them think you’re naïve if it results in getting the information you seek. A late nineteenth century table has been exposed to water damage. The company responsible for the sprinklers that caused the damage agrees to only pay for refinishing the top, the only part affected by the water.

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The above is an excerpt from an article by Elin Lake-Ewald, Ph.D, ASA, RICS, published in the ASA Personal Property Journal, Autumn 2006.

To read the complete article please click here:

PPJ Vol 16 (3) 2006 Fall DAMAGE LOSS APPRAISALS - PART II - FROM AVERAGE TO ABERRATIONAL

What’s the Matter with Mold? Claims and Counterclaims

 When a New York Supreme Court judge issued an important decision in September 2006 regarding mold claims, I realized that I had over recent years unwittingly become a mold junkie. My scattered file drawers coughed up dozens of articles and multiple clippings on the subject, a collection begun about six or seven years ago when this office was hit with a flurry of assignments to determine losses relating to mold damage.  These were invariably coupled with health claims cited as being caused by the same environmental problem.

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The above is an excerpt from an article by Elin Lake-Ewald, Ph.D, ASA, RICS, published in the ASA Personal Property Journal, Winter 2006-2007.

To read the complete article please click here:

PPJ Vol 16 (4) Winter 2006 2007 What's the Matter with Mold - Claims and Counterclaims

How to Strategize Loss When Art is Damaged—A Very Tricky Business

A Picasso print is stolen from a collector's home. A nineteenth century painting by Monet suffers a gash when being unloaded from its wooden crate. During a coast-to-coast trip, an antique George III table falls on a fragile Giacometti sculpture inside a moving company van. The thin bronze sculpture snaps in two and one of the table legs breaks at the knee. An Andy Warhol silkscreen on canvas portrait is rained on for days when a leak in the apartment ceiling above it causes mischief during the owners' absence. What usually happens next is that a representative from the owners' insurance company arrives to assess damages. This person is usually not informed about paintings or antiques and readily admits this because he or she will be calling in a damage/loss specialist, a professional with the background and experience to assess and determine the loss.

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The above is an excerpt from an article by Elin Lake-Ewald, Ph.D, ASA, RICS, published in Valuation Strategies (WG&L), May/June 2005.

To read the complete article please click here:

HOW TO STRATEGIZE LOSS WHEN ART IS DAMAGED- A VERY TRICKY BUSINESS Valuation Strategies (WG-L) May-Jun 2005

Auction World Catchup

Exactly where are last year’s auction house superstars since the U.S. Justice Department’s relentless pursuit of antitrust violators revealed collusion among the top movers and shakers? And how has the auction market been affected? The first admission of guilt by a senior executive of the world’s two leading auction houses came when Christie’s Christopher Davidge admitted to participation in price-fixing, thereby allowing that auction house a grant of immunity by offering evidence first. It was said that Diana D. Brooks, then chief executive of Sotheby’s, had attempted to offer evidence at that time but that her admission came too late for the same leniency. She has pleaded guilty to a violation of the an­titrust laws, admitting to working with Christie’s to fix com­mission prices charged to sellers between 1993 and 1999.

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The above is an excerpt from an article by Elin Lake-Ewald, Ph.D, ASA, RICS, published in the ASA Personal Property Journal, Summer 2001.

To read the complete article please click here:

PPJ Vol. 13 (2) 2001 Summer Auction World Catchup

Appraisers Shouldn’t Pay

How does a fine art appraiser counter the demand for payment from a dealer asked to provide a price for the work on an artist that dealer represents? How does the appraiser even get cooperation of any sort from that dealer? For as long as most of us remember, ‘there’s been an on­going tug-of-war between personal property appraisers who need a replacement price from a gallery to complete an ap­praisal and the dealer who wants to be paid for this “appraisal.”

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The above is an excerpt from an article by Elin Lake-Ewald, Ph.D, ASA, RICS, published in the ASA Personal Property Journal, Winter 2001 / Spring 2002.

To read the complete article please click here:

PPJ Vol 13 14 (4 1) 2001 2002 Winter Spring - Appraisers Shouldn't Pay

Associative Value

One of the more difficult challenges to the personal property appraiser is deciding upon the significance of associative value on the price he or she will ultimately place on an art work, antique, decorative object or just mundane household item otherwise destined for a New Jersey landfill. First of all, what is associative value? For the purpose of this article at least, we are discussing the additional increment(s) assigned to any personal property whose value could be enhanced by having been owned by or associated with a renowned collector, celebrity or other individual or institutional entity.

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The above is an excerpt from an article by Elin Lake-Ewald, Ph.D, ASA, RICS, published in the ASA Personal Property Journal, Winter 2000.

To read the complete article please click here:

PPJ Vol 12 (4) 2000 Winter Associative Value

At Issue – Price Fixing by Art Dealers and Auction Houses

1. Dealers, Auction Houses and the Sherman Anti-Trust Act While the Ganz and Sharp sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s began what is considered the most successful sales season in seven years, the two auction houses and a group of America’s most distinguished art dealers were served with subpoenas by the United States Justice Department.

Although relatively little is known about it yet, the investigation centers on collusion among art dealers buying at auction and, at the same time, on a possible collusion between the two major auction houses who set both seller’s commissions and buyer’s premiums.

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The above is an excerpt from an article by Elin Lake-Ewald, Ph.D, ASA, RICS, published in the ASA Personal Property Journal, Winter 1998.

To read the complete article please click here:

PPJ Vol 10 (1) 1998 Winter At Issue - Price Fixing by Art Dealers and Auction Houses

Viewpoint

Why, Oh Why, Is He Doing This To Me? I used to mutter this to myself when dragged to baseball games by my dad, who figured I must be as much of a fan as he was. Glori­ously engaged in the sport I was not, but at least I paid sufficient attention then to find that now it’s fun to go to baseball card and memo­rabilia shows. Sports nostalgia items have be­come so hot that it behooves all appraisers to know a little something about players, famous and obscure, who hit/kicked/threw/caught/tossed and generally handled the ball or puck at some point in American sports history. Even if you’re not enough of a specialist to appraise them, it’s helpful to be able to alert your clients to their potential value.

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The above is an excerpt from an article by Dr. Elin Lake-Ewald published in the ASA Personal Property Journal, Spring 1994.

To read the complete article please click here:

PPJ Vol. 6 (2) 1994 Spring Auction Market Analysis

Art Market Review

More Exciting Than a Soap The saga of Alan Bond has more plot twists than a daytime TV show.  The Australian entrepreneur, who financed his country’s 1983 America’s Cup victory over the USA, who bought van Gogh’s Irises for $53.0 million, and who owned a pair of $10 million dollar penthouses in New York and a corporate jet, is spending two and a half years in prison for fraud.  The sentence, half of what he could have received, was for failing to disclose a fee to one of the men who invested $6 million of the $12 million attempted bailout money to save the Rothwells Merchant Bank, hit by a run on its funds after the ’87 market crash, and for dishonestly concealing a $16-million success fee received in a financial transaction with a collapsed Australian bank.  The bulk of the artworks owned by Bond’s Dallhold Investments was auctioned this summer by Christie’s.  The expected $12 million won’t make a dent in the $440 million Dallhold debt.  Of the 52 lots only two didn’t sell, and personal records were set for several Australian artists.  Right in line with what has been happening in the art market, a Rupert Bunny Edwardian scene sold for $333,333, two-thirds of what Bond had paid for it in the late ‘80s.

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The above is an excerpt from an article by Dr. Elin Lake-Ewald published in the ASA Personal Property Journal, Autumn 1992.

To read the complete article please click here:

PPJ Vol. 4 (3, 4) 1992 Art Market Review

My Lunch with IRS

She’s slight, almost fragile in appearance, but that appearance is quite deceptive. After sixteen years as an appraiser with the Art Valuation Division of IRS, and now chief of the department, this lady is a pro. In a voice that is soft, moderated and always pleasant, the statements made by Karen Carolan are affected in a tone that brooks no nonsense. It was July 27th, 1990, and we were meeting in the offices of Wilson Fadely, Public Affairs Officer for IRS. Mr. Fadely remained throughout the interview at 1111 Constitution A venue, IRS’ central D.C. building.

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The above is an excerpt from an article by Dr. Elin Lake-Ewald published in the ASA Personal Property Journal, Winter 1991.

To read the complete article please click here:

PPJ Vol. 3 (3) 1991 Winter My Lunch with IRS

Viewpoint

JOURNAL Editor Nancy Smith dropped by our New York office recently for a brief chat that transformed itself into a three-hour conversation about possibilities for ASA members to better communicate news and ideas beneficial to all of us.  This column has been initiated in the hope of gathering comments from members nationally, enabling anyone who wishes to give voice to views about the art market, legislation relating to appraisers, new rules and regulations affecting us, or, in fact, anything newsworthy of importance to personal property appraisers. A review of an art/insurance seminar was pre-empted by “My Chat with IRS,” a one-on-one conversation with a local representative of that governmental agency who had called “as a friend”.  The conversation focused on estate appraisals and what transpired that afternoon seemed of sufficient interest to think it might be worthwhile passing on and asking for comments.

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The above is an excerpt from an article by Dr. Elin Lake-Ewald published in the ASA Personal Property Journal, Autumn 1989.

To read the complete article please click here:

Viewpoint PPJ Vol 2 (3) 1989