During a lifetime devoted to creative output, many artists find themselves being caretakers of countless unsold artworks and file-boxes packed with documents, with no idea what to do with them. They resolve to tackle the job, but they procrastinate, or are interrupted by varioius distractions. Many just want to keep working; hopeful of being rediscovered, or the glorious swansong of a museum retrospective. This is seldom how their stories end, unless they become proactive and take steps to create a durable legacy plan.

HERE’S HOW

A cautionary tale about the dispersal of SoHo artist Mary Beth Edelson: READ THE STORY

Tales with happier endings:InsideTrackLookingForwardfinished10-12-21copy-compressed

Brian O’Doherty Estate Appraisal 

Brian O’Doherty (1928-2022)

It was a privilege, pleasure, and honor; to have completed an appraisal of artworks in the estate of the late Brian O’Doherty, whose long career included being an art critic and presenter for NBC and PBS. He was an editor at Art in America magazine, and the author of numerous essays, and several novels.Long before before art fairs and the Internet, his influential book Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space described how late 20th-century art was defined as much by the sterile environments in which it was exhibited, as by the art itself.  O’Doherty was a prolific visual artist who excelled in a variety of practices; from drawing and painting, to installation and performance. He invented a number of alter-egos— the most famous of which was Patrick Ireland; a persona adopted in protest to the Bloody Sunday massacre in Derry on January 30, 1972.  After peace finally came to Northern Ireland in 2008, O’Doherty held a wake and burial of Patrick Ireland in the  formal garden of the Irish Museum of Modern Art. The importance of this significant artist’s life has yet to be reckoned, but it is sure to be lasting.

O’Doherty is represented by Simone Subal Gallery in New York, Galerie Thomas Hoffmann in Friedberg, Germany, and Galerie Thomas Fischer in Berlin.

Every two years, USPAP-complaint appraisers are required to complete a seven-hour refresher course. With over two million “appraisers” reportedly working in the United States, less than five percent have ever passed the examination of the fifteen-hour USPAP course, and fewer still remain current with USPAP.

So— what is USPAP? The Uniform Standards and Practices for Appraisal Professionals  “is the generally recognized ethical and performance standards for the appraisal profession in the United States.  USPAP was adopted by Congress in 1989, and contains standards for all types of appraisal services, including real estate, personal property, business and mass appraisal.  Compliance is required for state-licensed and state-certified appraisers involved in federally-related real estate transactions.”

There is no state licensing requirement for personal property (art & antiques) appraisals, but those appraisers who take the 15-hour USPAP course, passing its examination test, and taking a 7-hour refresher course every two years demonstrate credibility by holding themselves to the highest ethical and performance standards in the field.

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