Excerpt: Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies - 2012

The third article in the newest edition of the Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies is by Lisa Cambier.  Lisa was a master's student at the Sotheby's Institute and wrote her thesis on artist's archives.  After writing her master's thesis and through a recommendation by her adviser, Tom McNulty submitted the paper, entitled The Valuation and Institutional Placement of Artists' Archives for publication in the Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies. I have included Lisa's introduction and goals as part of this post.  For the rest of the article, well, you should purchase a copy of the new journal.

All proceeds from the sale of the Journal support the educational initiatives and scholarships of the Foundation for Appraisal Education. The cost of the journal is only $55.00, a bargain for the amount of expert personal property appraisal content supplied.  The 2012 edition contains 19 articles and 300 pages of content. For more information visit www.appraisaljournal.org to order your copy.

The next excerpt will be from an article written by Jianping Mei and Michael Moses on a review and financial performance of the 2011 art market. Look for the excerpt to be posted in the next week or so.

Lisa Cambier writes

Artists’ archives are a valuable resource to researchers, cultural institutions and scholars.  An archive provides historical and biographical information that is priceless for primary research.  However, an archive’s monetary value is not easily ascertained, nor is the process of finding this value thoroughly discussed in academic literature.  The historical, cultural and inherent values of these archives can be easily determined for researchers through the information included; yet finding a monetary, replacement or fair market value proves elusive and under developed.  First, this study will explore the history of archives in general and how they became a commodity.  Next, the process by which appraisers approach the valuation of an archive will be examined, discussing the challenges appraisers face when asked to put a value on such a unique and complex collection as an archive, looking to past appraisals of collections of memorabilia and correspondence both inside and outside the world of art. This study will then explore the market for archives in general, including universities, public libraries, museums and personal collectors.

The description of what constitutes an archive varies in the fields of appraisal, archive and library science.  These definitions range from an archive as a general whole to specific elements such as letters and signatures.  The purchase of archives is hardly unheard of, yet finding appraised values and an actual purchase price is not as readily available as are prices attained at public auction records for single works or collections.  The difficult nature of defining an archive contributes to the variance in values one could ascribe to an archive as a whole, or to specific archival items.  Adding to this difficulty is the “celebrity” factor, or to whom these archives once belonged and how much this person’s fame or importance increases the value of specific archives.  In this sense, archives relate to celebrity “memorabilia” and collectibles, where the price of the piece is dramatically increased because of the fame or importance of its provenance.  Placing a monetary value on archives, specifically those of artists, is important for many organizations, including artist’s foundations and estates, museums or universities that wish to acquire archives.  For appraisers, it is especially difficult because they may be required to justify this value for insurance purposes or to issue a fair market value.

Goals of This Study

The goals of this study are to analyze the many players involved in valuing and placing archives in general and those of visual artists specifically.  I also hope to examine the archive market and discover how this opaque market functions between institutions and foundations and from where the prices reached for these archive transactions come.  It is my goal to uncover what makes one archive more valuable than another, to examine the archive acquisition policies of institutions and to suggest guidelines for artists and artist-endowed foundations so they can best maintain and place archives.  In the end, the appraisal process is not an exact science and it varies according to many variables, but I will attempt to discuss what are the most important factors to all of the parties involved and how appraisers, foundations and institutions can make the most of an artist’s archive and legacy.

Click HERE to order the Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies - 2012 (or to order previous editions, 2008-2011).