What is my Collectible Worth? What is the opinion of an expert worth?

BTW, that is not a cigarette in my hand, lol. I don’t smoke. Its for measuring the pH of paper.

What is your collectible worth? OK, time for a teaching moment regarding several lessons. On this project and with this client, I consulted with her (a valuable service) on what her purposes or objectives were with the artwork (she wants to sell it)… but there was a ripple in the paper. Her opinion is that it should bring about $50,000 at auction but she can’t see getting the best price with the warp in the paper. I told her that I would have to take it out of its plexiglass frame in order to determine what the problem is. That seemed OK as she was also open to putting a new frame on it since this old plexiglass box frame was coming apart at the seams. I picked up the artwork at her house (valuable service).

When I took the artwork out of the frame at our lab, I found out that ripples in the paper would occur because the artwork was not mounted down to a solid support or a backing board. In other words, it was in virgin condition as the artist provided it to the art gallery. The artist and the art gallery had also decided on the framing which was designed, specific, and was kind of cool. Just the same, I got an estimate to have a new plexiglass box frame made, and I could not find anyone who would do it exactly like the old frame, nor with the more robust materials of the old frame. I also found out that a new cheaper quality frame, which was not as stylish, would cost quite a bit of money.

So, over the phone, I consulted again with the client about the value of letting me repair the original frame, and to not mount the artwork to remove ripples, because with the artwork in original vintage, virgin condition, and the original vintage frame, as chosen by the artist and the gallery, that this combination would make it highly desirable at auction, and might even result in a premium or higher price because of its completely original nature. so I fixed the plexiglass box frame and reinstalled the artwork, unmounted with ripples back into the frame. Then we hand delivered it back to the residence of the owner, here was her response…

I reminded her over the phone that we had gone over these details as they came up, and that every step along the way we had made decisions that would be to her advantage with the resale of the artwork. While I am not an appraiser, I told her, mounting the artwork to a board to remove the ripples and not using the original frame could have impacted the sale at auction by at least 50% less.… which was only a guess.

Her response? “I am not going to believe that ripples or distortions occur in paper just because the weather changes! What do you think I am, stupid?” And then she hung up on me.

Well, there’s no answer to that last question that’s going to calm her down or change her mind so…

But if her estimate of $50,000 is truly the amount that this artwork could bring at auction, then I may have saved her $15-$20,000 reduction in the sales price.  There are lots of reasons why something sells for more or less at an auction, but very often the condition of the artwork is a factor that can cause the auction sales to be exciting… or to fall flat.

I think I’ll end this lesson right here… otherwise…

Questions about your artwork’s maintenance, framing, care, restoration, shipping, display, storage, etc? Call Scott M. Haskins or Virginia Panizzon at 805 564 3438

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