Understanding The Appraisal Profession

When you retain the services of an attorney, a doctor or an accountant you expect that individual to have had the appropriate education and experience to have passed examinations that assure you of his or her competency to successfully provide the services you require.

Why then do you too often fail to demand the same requirements of an appraiser?

I’m thinking about this a lot because I just took a four day 15-hour recertification course and examination in The Uniform Standards of Processional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) one of many I’ve had to attend and be tested on over my years as an appraiser. In not so many months I will have to take a related seven-hour course. These are apart from countless attendances at symposia, lectures, museums, art panels as well as courses taken, gallery and museum visits, articles written, articles read, and whatever else it takes to keep up with my profession – just as is mandated for attorneys, doctors, accountants. In other words, we are all in the same professional boat, and paddling like crazy just to keep up with new rules, regulations and developments in our particular fields.

In other words, professional appraisers must undertake with the same rigor those standards that other professionals maintain to earn the public trust.

Because this is a big topic to take on, I’ve decided to break it up into multiple short articles. Right now all I’m trying to do is provide a little clarification on the subject of appraising.

DEFINITIONS

First of all, exactly what is an appraiser? My definitions are compliant with the USPAP manual based on the Appraisal Standards Board of The Appraisal Foundation, the governing organization for all professional appraisers.

1)      An appraiser is someone who in order to develop an opinion of value without bias is expected to perform valuation services in a competent manner, independently, impartially and objectively.

2)      The appraiser’s client is the person or persons who contact an appraiser for a particular assignment, but who may not be the person responsible for payment. In other words, if an attorney engages the appraiser he is the client although the attorney’s own client is the one who pays.

3)      Before actual work is undertaken by an appraiser he or she has to determine the scope of work necessary to identify the problem to be solved, figure out and perform all the work necessary to come up with credible results for the intended use and analyze and provide the appraisal report.

These are simply general guidelines for utilizing the services of an appraiser. However, users of appraisal services should understand that professional appraisers must comply with USPAP when required by law or agreement with the client.

An appraisal may be written or verbal, but in both cases there must be a work file maintained that includes certification by the appraiser. This work file must be retained at least five years after preparation of the report or at least two years after final judicial disposition of any proceedings in which testimony was provided by the appraiser.

Any decision as to the purpose of the appraisal and the kind of value to be utilized is made between the appraiser and his client before the initiation of work so that there are no misunderstandings about the goal of the assignment. There should be a letter of agreement or formal contract drawn up prior to the onset of the work by the appraiser.

Although “valuers” (appraisers) in Europe are not compelled to follow USPAP, many do. Many more adhere to similar regulations in the “Red Book” of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). European associates of OTE, when acting as professional appraisers, are expected to also be in compliance with these standards.

With all these clarifications, we’re now at the very beginning of the job.

Next time we’ll discuss what steps the appraiser must take to perform a professional appraisal.

Elin Lake-Ewald, PhD,ASA,FRICS

Best in Show: Auction House Previews

Vintage Diamond Ring tried on at a Christie's jewelry preview

Auction previews happen all the time in New York City, but who goes? Well intrepid collectors, obviously, looking for their next big purchase and art world insiders. At any time the top auction houses: Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Phillip’s and Bonham’s, have a rotation of artwork, furniture or jewelry (just to name a few) on view. What is not widely known is that these previews are open free to the public. What is so exciting about this is that much of what is on view will go from private collections back into private collections. For some of these artworks and objects this is the only time they will be viewed by the public.

Not to mention, if you are a jewelry lover like me and want to try on $100,000+ rings, necklaces and earrings this is your chance! All one has to do is walk in and ask what floor the preview is and then you are good to go. But this is not the only reason you should go to a preview. Much like a museum or gallery these exhibitions are often curated and will offer a different perspective on the work at hand. An upcoming auction at Sotheby’s, The New York Sale, looks like a good prospect. According to Sotheby’s this is a curated auction of “items from, inspired by and celebrating New York City.”  This inaugural New York Sale includes Print, Photographs, Paintings, Sculpture, Silver, Books, Jewelry and iconic New York Memorabilia.

Auctions are often themed and scheduled to coincide with other events in New York. Right now Bonhams has an exhibition called Dogs in Show and Field for an auction featuring only canine focused fine art, a perfect match for the annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, also in New York. The auction is happening tomorrow February 18th in New York beginning at 10am, so don’t worry dog lovers you still have time to hit both events.

Seeing auction previews and the auctions themselves is a great way to get a feel for what’s in the market at the moment, the prices and conditions of what is available. Plus, it can be a great way to spend an afternoon.

Here are some interesting auction previews and exhibitions that are coming up:

·         Rockefeller Center and the Rise of Modernism in the Metropolis, Christie’s Private Selling Exhibition, New York

• • On view: 17 January – 25 February 2015

·         Dogs in Show and Field, Bonham’s New York

• • On view: Today, February 17th 10AM-6PM
  • Auction: February 18th 10AM

·         Under the Influence, Phillips New York

• • 23 February – 3 March, 10am-6pm (Sundays 12pm-6pm)
  • Auction: March 4th 11am

·         The New York Sale, Sotheby’s New York

• • On view: 26 March - 31 March, 10AM - 01PM
  • Auction: April 1st, 7PM 

What to Look for When Collecting Photography (Part II)

On the most basic level, starting a collection in photography requires thought about the type of photography you actually like. Possible categories could include black and white, color, landscapes, nudes, living, vintage, documentary etc. Movements in photography are also good ways to define what you are looking for (Modernism, Pictorialism, War Photography etc). This seems simple but knowing how to define what you like is the first step to making successful purchasing decisions. Each of these different categories or movements will have specific knowledge associated with each.

Deepening your knowledge in these areas will help one develop an “eye.” Having an eye for art can come naturally for some but usually it requires years to perfect and is often difficult to obtain and maintain, even for appraisers.  For this reason seeing accurate documentation on anything you purchase, and keeping accurate documentation yourself - how you obtained it and when, should be a priority. Building a written inventory will ultimately save you a lot of headaches later on should you want to sell, or the work is stolen or damaged.

As art experts for the Public Administrator of New York, who handles estates without a will, we experienced just such an issue. Two senior appraisers from OTE were going through piles of mixed objects removed from the apartments, which included jumbles of furniture, framed artworks, collectibles, libraries and miscellaneous materials. Spread across several work tables, was a huge mass of what appeared to be old Kodak film boxes.

Looking through the meticulously maintained photographs, an anomaly considering the rest of the disheveled apartment, they had inadvertently stumbled upon the work of a real artist. Without OTE the collection of photographs by Harry Shunk and Janos Kender, great documentarians of the Paris/New York art scene in the second half of the 20th century, might never have been discovered.  The director of a major French museum and those of American museums and film societies arrived to review and the Public Administrator was persuaded to set up an auction for the photographs to be sold as one gigantic lot rather than dispersing them overtime. 

Excitingly The Lichtenstein Foundation, thanks to Dorothy Lichtenstein and Jack Cowart, acquired the massive collection at auction for $2 million.   After this the foundation began the collating the collection and set up a system to allocate segments of the collection to many museums worldwide.  The photographs are now considered invaluable in recording the history of major artists of the second half of the 20th century. A triumphant conclusion to what had almost become a treasure lost forever.

Fragments of Adam: an OTE Case

The separated head and torso looked disconcertingly familiar to me when they appeared in a photo on the front page of The New York Times on Sunday, November 9th. “Recreating Adam, From Hundreds of Fragments, After the Fall.”

Screen capture of the New York Times article 

The history of how it happened, the secrecy that ensued, the resurrection, and finally, revelation is the plot of this terrifying tale of Tullio Lombardo’s great Renaissance marble masterpiece. I hadn’t felt able to speak about it in detail for 12 years. A promise is a promise.

After the fall, when the initial horror of the museum staff had worn off, but only slightly, a few of us,  engineers , technicians and art specialists, were called upon to render professional opinions about what had gone wrong and what was going to be done about it. I and a colleague from this firm were led, as if to a chamber of horrors, into the conservation laboratory where the sculpture lay, shattered  yet still magnificent .

The papers write of it as if it had been scattered in a thousand fragments across the marble floor of the Velez Blanco Patio at the Met, but I remember it as retaining recognition as a very late 15th century Lombardo, head and much of the torso and one leg intact. I can’t recall exactly because I had to turn over all my photographs immediately after our report was rendered. Those were the days before digital where nothing dies. I guess those were the “28 recognizable pieces” that Met conservator Jack Soultanian mentioned in the newspaper article. The rubble had been bagged and identified.

From time to time, from hushed voices, we learned a little about what was going on in the lab, but very little. Massive amount of research were undertaken by this firm and we traced the sculpture back to its original site. The Renaissance scholar on staff, Leatrice Mendelsohn, was amazing in her pursuit of all the critical information required to help me arrive at a value of the sculpture before the fall and how much the piece had lost in value because of the damage.

A few months later I sat at an endlessly long wood table in a secluded section of the Met of which I had not been previously aware, facing what seemed to be an endlessly long  line of dark suited attorneys representing the multiple organizations and firms involved in the disaster.  Oddly enough, I don’t remember being scared because I was so overwhelmed by the grandeur of the setting, with light streaming down behind the group of what appeared to be judge types sitting to my left. I felt like it was an old Warner Brothers film about the trial of Charles the First.

Okay, not to prolong this because, after all, I survived and am writing this blog now. I mean, I wasn’t the one at fault anyway. I didn’t push Adam off his pedestal. The fact that its six foot three, one thousand pound marble body had been standing for so many years on a modest wooden pedestal might have had something to do with the disaster.

So it was with relief that I found that the Met has decided to open the floodgates of information, always a wise course to take, and one that suddenly seems in favor at major museums nationally. So much better than having misinformation leaking out in bits and pieces and that can prove far more detrimental than a simple admission and explanation.

I wonder if reality shows have been influencing all of us.

Written by Elin Lake-Ewald

An Unusual Man: OTE Founder James St. Lawrence O'Toole

OTE’s founder was an unusual man; born in Baltimore in 1895 to an American mother, James St. Lawrence O’Toole brought to the art world the charm of his father, the Irish air attaché to the U.S., and former World War I flying ace.  He studied at Trinity in Dublin, after which he spent several years in Europe where he worked for Jacques Seligmann et Fils. Between this and his travels back and forth between the States and Paris that he gained his extensive knowledge in fine and decorative arts. During this time he worked at the Hotel de Sagan in Paris and at the New York branch at 5 East 57th Street.  

Shortly before the Second World War hit he met and later married the opera singer, Diodata Dandi, who had come to the States to teach belle canto voice to Americans at the Peabody Institute. Not long after James St. L. O’Toole joined the army and became a member of O.S.S. (the forerunner to the CIA) parachuting into France at one point and evading capture as a spy. A historical novel about the time, Surrounded by Howard Burman, claims that at some point O’Toole even posed as an "art consultant" to Herman Göring in Switzerland until he was discovered after trying to pass off a fake Vermeer painting. While we can’t confirm or deny this but it certainly adds to the legend that is James St. Lawrence O’Toole.

After the war ended he returned to a more sedate life in New York. He and his wife had purchased a town house and began an association with the Paul Reinhardt Gallery. In 1932 he established his own eponymous gallery that later morphed into O’Toole-Ewald Art Associates, Inc. His clients included celebrities in both the worlds of society and politics. Lawrence O’Toole also testified in a number of high profile art trials during the 1930 and 40s.  

By the 1980s when Elin Lake-Ewald became a partner and the organization had offices in Manhattan and Venice, where James O’Toole lived half the year.  His friends and associates came from nearly every country on the globe and when he died in 1988 the rooms of the American-Irish Historical Society were crowded with those who had benefitted from the many years of his wisdom and words and his vast knowledge of the wide world of art.

Opening Night at the IFPDA Print Fair 2014

Opening night at the Print Fair brought crushing crowds and some amazing power on paper!

 A growing market for early 20th century British printmakers seemed to grow exponentially as several dealer booths focused on displays by Sybil Andrews, CRW Nevinson, Claude Flight, Margaret Barnard, Cyril Edward Power, and Lill Tschude, much admired but scarcely known in the US. Prices ranged from the low $30,000s to over $100,000, so it’s clear that there is as strong market for these vigorously colored linocuts. Kempner Gallery appeared to have the largest selection.

 Equally striking, but in the most subtle of ways, was an unusual series of eight silkscreens by Fred Sandbeck priced at $25,000. Famed for his string sculptures, these prints showed the varied configurations of a structure of strings as if it were in motion. At Diane Villani, publisher.

 At Barbara Krakow was another series of nine geometric black and white silkscreens from a set of ten (I still can’t figure that out), by Sol Lewitt, from 1982, and also priced at $25,000.

 So much to see and so much to remember, but two prints whose images remain with me: an engraving by William Black of Chaucer’s Canterbury Pilgrimage for $60,000 at the Fine Art Society of London, and at Hill-Stone an etching of Death and the Knight, a beautiful impression, for $225,000.

 This year may have brought in the largest group of non-American dealers that I can remember, and certainly a great number of non-New York dealers, a good many from Chicago. Definitely a sense of energy and excitement prevailed, but the increase in prices for prints was discernible. Perhaps, at any price, prints can be made to seem like near giveaways in the light of the  prices at the auction sales currently going on.

Written by Elin Lake-Ewald, Ph.D, ASA, FRICS