Becoming A Collector: The Right Way
by David Charles - 6/12/2006
It was a peculiar circumstance that brought this unlikely group of people together at the house of Sam Palmer in Southern California. It could have been an inheritance of a large collection of old masters or a purchase of some great modern works of art as a way of investing a bunch of loose cash. It could even have been the sudden and mysterious appearance of a number of paintings and antiques in an abandoned attic in an old house. But it was none of those things.
There was Theresa (Teri) Franks, Founder and CEO of the Fine Art Registry. Charles Sherman, prolific Beverly Hills sculptor and fine art appraiser was also there. Then there was yours truly, official photographer and scribe. Sam Palmer, of course. It was her house and her artwork that was the center of attention.
Sam had had some interesting art around the house but would not have considered herself a collector. Then one day a friend had dumped a number of paintings, sculptures and carvings on her and she had agreed to look after them with an option to buy them if she wanted to.
"I found myself with artwork and I had absolutely
no understanding of its value."
"I was storing items for a friend of mine who said I could purchase them if I wanted," explains Sam. "The amounts kept changing as to what this person wanted for these items that I had in storage. I found myself with artwork and I had absolutely no understanding of its value. I didn't know if they were fakes or real." This is a fairly typical situation in the world of art where fakes and forgeries abound and where the value of a piece of art can be compared to the proverbial length of a piece of string and can depend a lot on who's measuring it and what they stand to gain from the result.
Sam was also well acquainted with the problems that can surround insurance claims should the items get damaged.
The whole situation had become a bit of a nightmare to her.
The choice was to take the pieces to Sotheby's or Christie's or the like at vast time and expense to get a valuation or….?
Through a mutual acquaintance, Sam was introduced to Teri Franks, an avid art collector and Founder and CEO of FAR. Teri recommended an appraiser, Charles Sherman.
“This is a marvelous way of being able to subsequently trace your artwork and know that if you wanted to sell it, someone could feel pretty assured that it wasn't a fake."
"Teri explained what she was doing in terms of having patented this new concept of tagging artwork with the ability to have a tracer on it, much like a VIN number is to a car," says Sam, "She is creating this exceptionally large database of artwork. It's obviously more advisable to have each artist sign off and tag each piece of artwork as it is created but you can't do that with masters or things that are several hundred years old. But this is a marvelous way of being able to subsequently trace your artwork and know that if you wanted to sell it, someone could feel pretty assured that it wasn't a fake." (It is interesting that Charles Sherman did discover some obvious fakes among Sam's art collection but even a fake sometimes has value, and in any case you are far better off knowing the truth about the piece.)
The next thing that happened was the aforementioned meeting of the minds at Sam's house. Purpose? To get these pieces of art valued, tagged and permanently registered in the FAR database and remove the confusion and unknowns once and for all.
For FAR it was also a field trip to connect personally with the problems a collector might encounter in bringing order to a collection of art work and getting it properly identified, tagged and registered––an experience that has led to the streamlining of the website and tagging system to help make it even more foolproof and user friendly.
In addition to the pieces that she was storing for her friend, Sam had the appraiser evaluate a number of paintings, bronzes, antique pieces of furniture and even a beautiful old baby grand that she had acquired through the years, and went on to register these too. This was the perfect chance to get everything appraised, identified, described, tagged and, perhaps most importantly, registered with its fair market value, full description and tag number on the Fine Art Registry website.
“If it ever gets lost or in a fire or flood damage…it would be so much easier to deal with the insurance aspect. You have a true valuation.”
The result? Well, you can see it for yourself. Go to the home page of the FAR website (www.FineArtRegistry.com) and click on "FAR Search" in the menus on the left. Click on "By User" at the top. Type into the "User" box "kensingtont" and you will see the collection. Click on any of the items and you will see the full description. If any are for sale, it will tell you right there.
The overall effect this has had on Sam and her assortment of artwork and antiques is the same effect it has on any collection, large or small. What was a random bunch of assorted, unknown, unidentified pieces of art which could have disappeared overnight with no record and no one the wiser, is now an orderly, structured collection, each item identified as far as possible, likelihood of authenticity established, tagged with its own unique uncounterfeitable tag, registered in a safe, secure and off-site database and available for people to view, learn from and purchase items from if she ever decides to sell. For probate purposes it is now something that can be dealt with easily and effectively.
Sam explains what it means to her. "If it ever gets lost or in a fire or flood damage, which I'm certainly familiar with, it would be so much easier to deal with the insurance aspect. You have a true valuation. You have proof that there is a value attached to your artwork and this information is stored somewhere other than where your home is where it might be damaged or be subject to a flood or fire. There is a pictorial record which is great for insurance companies."
It's also changed Sam's life. "I've now decided to become a collector," she says, obviously thrilled with the whole process, start to finish. She loves her new gallery on the FAR website. “Most people do not insure their artwork or even video their home in case of destruction,” she says. "I think it's something people should do. And FAR is very inexpensive. What a very small price to pay for something that's valuable. Let's assume something happens like an earthquake or flood damage. You may have videoed everything but what if you left the camera and video at your home and they were also lost? Although the insurance company would have a record, they may not have photographs. This way you have a permanent record which is somewhere out in cyberspace that will not become damaged, lost or unavailable to you. I think that's phenomenal. I plan on registering any other artwork, sculpture, anything of value," she continues. "I will recommend it to anyone I know, or who I come in contact with, who has valuables. I've already begun telling people about FAR."
Actually this small incident helps bring a little bit of order to the whole fragmented, abused and vague world of art collections and collecting, by at least nailing down these particular pieces, giving them their proper place in art history, providing them with an identity, a number, a description and a value.
Bit by bit this is how this great, sprawling, disorderly segment of human endeavor will be brought under useful and orderly control.
— David Charles | June 12, 2006
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