Insurance
Replacement value
What it would cost to replace the work at today's market, documented to a standard an underwriter will accept.
Services
Four things,
done properly
Each service states what you receive, in writing, before you commit to anything.
Private Sales
AB / PS
A private sale is a negotiated transaction between two named parties. There is no public catalogue, no reserve announced to a room, and no permanent record of a lot that failed to find a buyer.
That last point is the one collectors underestimate. An auction publishes its result either way. A work that passes unsold acquires a public history of having been refused, and that history follows it to the next sale. A private sale carries no such shadow.
It suits three situations: a work whose value would be harmed by a public failure, an owner who does not want the sale known, and a timetable that will not wait for the next sale season. Where an open room would genuinely produce a better figure — a work with deep competing demand — we will tell you to go to auction instead, and say which house.
We establish what the work is
Attribution, period, medium, dimensions, and the ownership history as far as it can be followed. Where the chain has a gap, the gap is recorded rather than glossed.
We put a range in writing, with its basis
The range comes with the comparable auction results behind it, so you can weigh the reasoning rather than take the number on faith.
The work is offered to named collectors
Not a mailing list. A small number of people for whom this specific work is right, approached individually.
Documents travel with the work
Provenance chain, condition report, certificate where one exists, and an invoice carrying the house inventory number. The Registrar sends a movement notice at every handover.
Valuations & Estates
AB / VE
A valuation is only as good as the evidence printed beside it. Ours states the work, its condition on the date of inspection, the figure, and the comparable results the figure rests on — so an insurer, a court, or a sceptical relative can test it.
We value for insurance, for succession, and for division between heirs. Estate work is the longest relationship the house has: it begins with a collector and continues with a family who did not choose the collection and often do not know what is in it. That work is done slowly and without pressure to sell anything.
Succession
Fair market value
A defensible figure at a stated date, for probate and for the conversations that follow it.
Division
Between heirs
A collection valued work by work so it can be divided by agreement rather than by argument.
Collection Advisory
AB / CA
Most advisory is a list of things to buy. The useful half is the list of things to decline: the right artist from the wrong decade, the work whose surface has been over-restored, the picture that is genuine and still a poor purchase at that price.
We advise on which period of an artist carries the weight, what condition a work is actually in once it is off the wall and under raking light, and when the correct answer is to wait. We are paid for the advice, not the transaction, so declining is a real option.
If a work sits outside what we can document, we say so and, where we can, name the specialist who should see it.
Enquiries
Which of these do you need?
Describe the work or the question in a line or two. The Client Advisory desk will tell you what is involved and what it costs before anything begins.
Write to Client AdvisorySelling something you already own? Start at Sell a Work.