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Devotees of PBS TV’s Antiques Roadshow may dream of the day they pick up a dusty piece of furniture for next-to-nothing at an estate sale only to find it is a rare vintage piece. Or even better, they find a treasure in the attic, like the Norwegian man who found a Van Gogh landscape in his home in 2013, or the Ohio cousins who uncovered $3 million in mint-condition baseball cards in 2012.
These newsworthy finds are rare, says Caitlynde Brancovsky, regional fine art specialist and personal lines appraiser for Chubb in Chicago. But finds do happen. “We had a client who purchased pieces from a vintage shop—and they often buy in bulk from estate sales and don’t know exactly what they have.” The buyer, a jewelry collector, had it appraised and found that it was worth far more than what she’d paid for it. “She knew she had found something important.”
Maggie Reynolds, regional fine art specialist and senior personal lines appraiser for Chubb in Houston, tells a similar story. One client she knows of found a well-preserved chest of drawers—and an appraiser established that it was an extremely valuable and rare piece from the Italian Renaissance.
Having your valuable art, jewelry and furniture pieces appraised is an important part of insuring them for the correct amount. Unfortunately, Reynolds notes, “the appraisal profession is unregulated and does not require a license, so technically anyone could call themselves an art appraiser.”
Make sure it’s official
When searching for a qualified appraiser, both Reynolds and Brancovsky recommend going to the three main societies that regulate their members, holding them to certain standards. Those organizations are Appraisers Association of America (AAA), American Society of Appraisers (ASA) and International Society of Appraisers (ISA). When insuring valuable pieces, insurance companies look for appraisals written to USPAP standards, for the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice—the generally accepted standards for professional appraisal practice in North America. USPAP contains standards for all types of appraisal services, including real estate, personal property, business and mass appraisals.
Equally important is that property owners seek out appraisers that specialize in the time period and medium of the piece they own. “A specialist in Chinese porcelains would not be an ideal appraiser for antique American furniture,” Reynolds says.
Specialists, says Brancovsky, usually boil down finding an appraiser to the “four Es: expertise, examination, experience and ethics,” regardless of the type of piece they’re looking to have appraised.
Get your pieces reappraised
Finally, Chubb experts recommend that clients have their collections reevaluated every three to five years. “We’re constantly monitoring clients’ schedules because of the rising prices at auction—particularly in modern and contemporary values,” Brancovsky says.
Even if the value of your piece doesn’t wildly fluctuate, Reynolds notes, an appraisal is still important. “In one case,” she says, “the wires and fasteners on the back of a painting that were old and worn caused a painting to fall off the wall.” Good appraisals can help you value those rare, fabulous finds, but also protect the pieces you already own.