[WSBAPT] Referral to Seattle Area Art Appraiser

[John Sullivan]

Listmates:

Is anyone familiar with who among the Seattle area art gallery and museum crowd might be qualified to appraise for estate tax purposes a collection of paintings by a Norwegian artist of some repute? All I know at this point is the collection is almost certainly not of completely de minimis value.

On this topic I will share my one war story. Years ago I handled an IRS audit of a charitable contribution of an art collection donated to Whitman College by Seafirst Bank when I was in house there. It was an eclectic collection of East Asian art an officer of Rainier Bank had accumulated during a lifetime of managing the Tokyo office. Before my time my predecessor at the bank hired a UW professor to appraise the collection, for the bank's consolidated income tax return. The IRS came back and said it was worth 1/10 of the appraised value. That's when it landed on my desk. The UW professor had moved to CA and never returned my calls. So I sought a second opinion from the various gallery owners and a curator I knew at SAM.

What I learned was how tight and small the world of the art market really is. The IRS has something in D.C. called the "Art Advisory Panel," made up of virtually all the top people from places like Christie's and Sotheby's who actually know what the stuff is worth. As soon as the local talent learned what they would be confronted with, they scattered. Nobody would challenge the Art Advisory Panel, because they knew them by reputation at least and would not want to get on their wrong side. Plan B would have been to shop it with folks in London who are in the auction business. Instead, we successfully conceded the issue in exchange for some accommodation elsewhere on the return.

So ... never hire an academic for an opinion of real world value. And the art world is awfully "chummy."

Anyway, that was a long time ago and I'm out of touch with who might be good at appraising these days. Thanks in advance for any referrals.
Best regards,
John J. Sullivan<mailto:dlyons at lyonslawoffices.com>,
Attorney

Lyons | Sullivan
10655 NE 4th Street, Suite 704
Bellevue, WA  98004
425*451*2400 tel 425-451-7385 fax
www.dljslaw.com<http://www.dljslaw.com/>

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