How Art Appraisal Works
People use price, value and appraisal as though they mean the same thing. They do not, and the difference decides what you are actually being told when a work carries a number.
Three different numbers
- The asking price is what a seller wants today. It reflects the seller’s position as much as the work.
- The realised price is what someone paid. It is a fact about one transaction between two particular people on one day.
- The appraised value is an assessment of what the work should command, made by someone willing to put their name to the method.
Only the third is a judgement, and only the third can be wrong in a way that matters.
What an appraisal is built from
An honest appraisal for contemporary sculpture rests on a small number of things, and none of them is a formula.
Comparable sales
What has work of similar material, scale and standing actually sold for, and recently. Comparables are the backbone, and they are also the weakest link for a maker without a long sales record, because there may be very few of them.
Material and scale
A carved marble torso and a small cast bronze head are not comparable objects even by the same maker. Carving time, material cost and the risk carried during making all sit inside the figure. A large cast glass piece that survived a fortnight of annealing represents a different investment from one that spent two days in a kiln.
Edition
A unique work and one of an edition of eight are valued differently, and the size of the run matters more than collectors often expect. Closing a run matters too. An edition that can be reopened in a new size has no scarcity to price.
The maker’s trajectory
This is the part that moves. Exhibitions, acquisitions, and critical attention change what a maker’s work commands. It is also the part most open to wishful thinking, which is why it should be stated rather than buried inside a single confident number.
Why the date is part of the figure
An appraisal without a date is not an appraisal. Markets move, makers develop, and a figure set three years ago describes a situation that may no longer exist. Any house quoting a value should be willing to say when it was set and what would cause it to be revisited.
The house re-appraises as a maker’s standing changes. Every re-appraisal is appended to the certificate and the earlier figures stay visible, so a collector can see the direction of travel rather than only the latest number. A record that overwrites its own history is asking you to take the current figure on faith.
Appraisals can go down
This is the part most sellers leave out. If a value can rise because a maker’s standing grows, it can fall when interest moves elsewhere. A house that only ever revises upward is not appraising. It is marketing.
Mount Qaf states this plainly: an appraised value reflects the house’s assessment and may rise or fall over time. Resale through the house is offered as a service, not a guarantee of profit.
What to ask
When you are given a value, ask who set it, when, and against what. Ask whether the number has changed since the work was first sold, and if so, whether you can see the earlier figures. Ask what the house does if the value falls.
How that works for a buyer is set out on the collectors page, and the underlying acceptance criteria are on the Standard.
