What is my art worth? What are my antiques worth? Where can I value my art and antiques?
As the art world remains opaque, these questions become more prevalent.
There are very few industries out there that have not been affected by technology and the art world is certainly no exception. These days we can easily capture high quality digital images of our art, antiques and collectibles and share them with whomever we please. When it comes to discovering what art and antiques are worth, this convenience has worked to our advantage in many ways both as a client and as an appraiser. It saves time and money for the client by cutting out the need to pay for a physical inspection. And it often times makes the appraisal process more efficient for the appraiser.
However, when having art and antiques valued on line, the consumer should be aware that not every type of object can or should be valued solely through digital images alone. Here at What’s it Worth, our main goal is to help clients get through the discovery phase of valuing their art and antiques without having to pay a fortune. In other words, if my painting is not worth a fortune, why pay a fortune to find out? While we want to service as many clients as possible, it is also important to us that we hold to the highest standards and ethics when it comes to properly valuing art, antiques and collectibles. What does this mean? In other words, there are various types of objects that simply cannot be appraised online. And the buyer should be aware of any entity claiming that they can.
Some of the objects that should not be appraised online are ivory, precious stones, precious jewelry, cars, rare wines, many types of prints and many genres in the Asian Art category. There are various reasons for each collecting category (which could be discussed in many separate blogs). For example, it can be almost impossible to discern the quality and authenticity of many prints without actually seeing and inspecting the piece with the naked eye. Many of the materials in Asian art are so delicate that they must be inspected in person to discern age and condition. For rare stones and fine jewelry, they must be physically weighed to be valued. These are only a few examples.
Here at What’s it Worth we only value art and antiques that can be properly valued through images and the information the client provides us and they are listed on our What We Value page. It is not only important to us that the client feels they are getting a good value, but it is equally important that the art and antiques that we do value are valued and identified properly.
