Becoming an Art Appraiser, Part 2

Embarking on a new career is often catalyzed by chance encounters with people who encourage you to follow that path.

For me, that person was Natasha Martinez Eckholm, a Latin American art specialist and museum professional who had also recently decided to explore the appraisal profession. We became acquainted while working for an appraiser as researchers on a large collection of African art. Although neither of us were experts in African art, we both had jumped at the chance to work with an experienced appraiser on such an interesting collection. We were both advancing through the American Society of Appraisers' curriculum on appraisal methodology and report writing, and serving as researchers on a major appraisal project provided an excellent practicum. When the project ended we looked at each other and wondered what was next.

The Next Step

Finding another job with an experienced appraiser was bound to be difficult. As we talked, we realized that together we had decades of experience in the art world along with specialized knowledge in our respective areas of Latin American and Native American art, and Asian art and archaeology. Natasha had worked as a curator and museum director of a local contemporary art museum. I had earned a Masters in Art History and a doctorate in Chinese archaeology, and most recently had been a guest curator and university lecturer. Although we were subject matter experts, we were novices as appraisers. We figured teaming up as partners would be a great way to work out appraisal problems and navigate the appraisal profession. In 2007, we founded our own appraisal firm.

Early Days

One of our first projects was a large collection of several hundred objects, paintings and prints. Documenting the collection was fun— photographing and recording the details of the properties felt like a treasure hunt. We noted the property details on paper forms attached to a clipboard and later entered them into our Word document; a process that reminded me of my college days back in the early 80s when I wrote my senior thesis with pen and paper and then gave it to a professional typist.

Researching the properties was also fun. I loved exercising my connoisseurship skills to evaluate the quality of the artwork and then searching the auction databases and galleries for comparable artworks sold or offered for sale. I found researching the artists and provenance of artworks, determining their date and authenticity as well as writing up opinions of value, to be engaging and interesting. However, the process of compiling a couple hundred-page report in a Word document was frustrating and time-consuming; it involved formatting, sizing and resizing images, adding captions and sources, as well as incorporating legal disclaimers, credentials and signatures. We hired an assistant to help, but in the end, the details overwhelmed her, and Natasha and I had to intervene.

This project left me wondering about the viability of the appraisal profession. If we bill by the hour and report production is both complex and time-consuming, how can we produce reports efficiently without compromising quality and accuracy? We learned that having an assistant wasn’t necessarily the answer to improving our bottom line. It was 2007 and there weren’t a lot of digital tools to help us. What to do? Luckily, my husband, who is a software engineer, devised a solution: a cloud-based report writer.