Why Should You Have Your Museum Collections Appraised?
Many museums who have suffered fire, flood, breakage and theft have unfortunately found that their collections were uninsured or under insured. We at Timothy Gordon Appraisals are insurance experts and are familiar with the highest current values for your rare and unique artifacts. Insurance companies will often insure your items, but upon loss demand documented proof of value by a certified appraiser. If they feel the declared value is too high or unproven, they may contest reimbursement for the loss. Our appraisal values are set to actual proven Insurance Replacement Value - a valid and legal price accepted by your insurer, should the item become lost or damaged. We have worked as consultants for numerous insurance companies and know what is needed to properly verify Insurance Replacement Value.
You might be greatly underinsured. In one instance that I encountered, a Museum had insured a Haida Indian Chief’s hat for only $250, but our research discovered a nearly identical example which had sold recently at a major auction house for six figures.
•Inventories - If your institution has un-cataloged collections or does not have a data base for your collections, our appraisal service automatically provides this. We have a broad based knowledge in all fields and are able to identify and record in proper museum manner and methods. We specialize in large sized collections and have learned over the years to invent fast and efficient systems for cataloging and recording collections, systems which also conform to the needs of your curatorial staff. I will use your numbering / acronym systems or create new museum industry accepted ones for you. The report you receive with contain exact, accurate and informative descriptions, identification, dating, dimensions and condition report along with expert photographs. The finished report will be printed in both hard copy books and a digital format. This reference work can then beused for staff information, cataloguing and public presentations.
•No Collection is too large or eclectic. We have catalogued collections as large as one million artifacts and are fast, professional and efficient, often many times more rapid than most other appraisers.
We evaluate nearly anything and everything and so have a vast lifetime knowledge of what it is and it is worth. In the past, we have expertly appraised large collections of documents, ancient antiquities, historical garments, textiles, art, paintings, prints, ceramics, books, coins, photographs, rare prints, antique vehicles, Native Americana, Asian, arms & armor, military history, religious artifacts, National treasures, buildings, jewelry, trains, political artifacts, dinosaur bones & fossils, taxidermy, glassware, sealed and sensitive material and odd objects from any period of the history of the world. We have appraised paintings by the masters, as well as items from Presidents, Princesses, villains and heroines.
•Online Inventories can be generated from our reports to be viewed by scholars and interested parties worldwide. Become an online museum and have a counter for visitors who voluntarily login. Use this to gather addresses to increase your audience and membership by thousands. Your organization may be able to use these new found guest registry/membership numbers and addresses for receiving grants and for fundraising as well as to modernize and reach out to the world community.
With your appraisal, we have all ready performed most of the work necessary to create an inventory, price and photograph section for your collections. It is then a simple matter for us to to create the online inventory site and maintain it.
•Valuing Incoming Gifts as a service for donors and wooing gifts of rare items. Our appraisal service provides legal tax value for non-cash charitable donations. Most donors will request a value for their items upon gifting. We can provide that service for them. However, according to new tax legislation, value of donations must be proven by an accredited professional appraiser. Timothy Gordon Appraisals has provided numerous appraisals ranging from a few hundred dollars into the millions of dollars, and we have never had these values contested. Reluctant donors can often be persuaded to donate, if they are informed of the significant tax benefit that they might receive for valuable objects.
•Make Accession and Deaccession Decisions.
We are confidential Museum and Library De-accession Specialists.
The Benefits of Liquidating Hard to Store Artifacts are obvious:
•Clearing your storage areas will provide you with needed space.
•Funding from liquidating non-contributing material helps your budget and salary needs! In some instances, a very rare object or work of art can be sold to pay operational costs for months or years. That painting in the basement, Civil war coat or rare book can pay for curatorial salaries and operating needs. We have facilitated the sale of valuable art and artifacts for many Institutions. Often, these items locked away in the basement were worth a great deal of money and went unnoticed by the organization, until we pointed out their great value to the ever changing market. We are market and marketing specialists for anything of great value.
Where I go to work...
Tim Gordon
timbgordon@mac.com
http://www.timothygordonappraisals.com
