A formal appraisal requires time and resources, and produces a signed document that carries a precise professional and legal responsibility. It has real value only when it meets a concrete documentary or legal need; otherwise it is an unnecessary cost. Helping the client to distinguish between these two situations is the very first service that an ethically correct appraiser should offer.

The six circumstances in which an appraisal is indispensable

  1. Insurance cover and policy renewals: insurers require the replacement value as at a precise date, accompanied by identification records and photographic documentation. In the event of a claim, a declared value without an appraisal to support it may be disputed.
  2. Estates and the division of inheritances: the heirs need a single valuation that is fair to all, while the notary needs a technical document on which to base the calculation and allocation of shares. The appraiser prepares the inventory and values the individual works, leaving tax and notarial matters to notaries and tax advisers.
  3. Sale of works of significant value: auction house valuations and dealers' offers are often negotiating positions geared to the transaction. An independent appraisal gives the owner a realistic understanding of a reliable market price, allowing them to negotiate from a position of strength.
  4. Wealth management (family offices, trust companies, trusts, banks): when the work forms part of assets managed by third parties or is pledged as collateral for loans (art lending), institutions require valuations that are updated periodically and prepared according to specific requirements and international standards.
  5. Disputes and litigation: in the event of disagreements between co-heirs or former spouses, or of disputes with sellers or insurers, whether in court or out of court, an appraiser is needed who can prepare a technical report suitable for the court and rigorously hold their ground in adversarial proceedings.
  6. Damage to the work (damage assessment): determining the value before the loss, quantifying the cost of restoration and any residual depreciation is a highly specialised analysis, to be carried out before any conservation work.

When an appraisal is not needed (or other specialists are)

  • For simple curiosity or informal valuations: for works of modest value that one does not intend to insure or sell, or to assess whether it is worth offering a work at auction, a formal appraisal is not needed. In these cases an initial indication, a comparison with public sale results or the free valuations of auction houses are sufficient.
  • For certificates of authenticity or attributions: the art appraiser does not issue certificates of authenticity. Judgement on authenticity belongs to those qualified to form it (the artist's specialist scholars, the archive or foundation when they work with method and evidence, and for living artists the artist themselves); where there are several qualified voices, what counts is a reasoned consensus, not a single authority. The appraiser's role is to accept or reject the presumption of authenticity, give reasons for it in the appraisal and answer for it, telling the client whom to consult if the documentation is incomplete.
  • For tax, notarial or insurance formalities in the strict sense: the appraiser deals with the technical and art-historical valuation; tax matters, the drafting of notarial deeds and the formalisation of insurance policies are for tax advisers, notaries and insurance brokers respectively.