Who is a real appraiser?

This would be an unnecessary topic if there were not such a plethora of people who “do appraisals” without any training, testing or certification as professional appraisers. In the section on this website “Who appraises other stuff?” we list three major professional appraisal societies and note that two of them require their certified members to practice in compliance with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) of The Appraisal Foundation. These are the colleagues to whom we refer assignments.

We prefer that appraisers not also be dealers or brokers, but it is possible to pursue both roles and keep them separate. Remember, If a person has integrity, nothing else matters. If a person does not have integrity, nothing else matters.

Personal property appraisers should be disciplined about accepting only assignments for the appraisal of material in which they have experience. The exception is found when the property to be appraised is unique and has no comparables. That’s something we at Bernard Ewell Art Appraisals, LLC, specialize in. We have successfully appraised quite an amazing list of multi-million dollar unique properties with no comparables.

When working on opinions of authenticity, we frequently retain other experts or technicians (such as metallurgists, conservators and archivists) and solicit the opinions of others who are knowledgeable about the subject artist’s work.