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Artwork appraisals in Delaware for donations, estate tax, insurance, and divorce, prepared in accordance with USPAP and IRS requirements. AppraiseItNow appraises paintings, sculptures, prints, photography, and mixed media across Delaware, including Wilmington, Dover, and Newark.
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT ANTIQUE ARTWORK APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, DELAWARE COURTS, LENDERS, INSURERS, AND MORE.
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Owner & CEO
Joe founded AppraiseItNow to make a certified, USPAP-compliant appraisal as simple to order as anything else online. A former Bain & Company strategy consultant, Joe leads the entire team and specializes in strategy, growth, and the firm's tech capabilities.
Personal Property Appraiser
ISA Accredited Member with 30 years in the trade, from running estate sales and an auction gallery to appraising luxury apparel, furniture, artwork, antiques, and business assets, primarily for IRS tax filings.
Personal Property Appraiser
ISA Accredited Member specializing in Asian art, with a Master's from SOAS and a Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art. Ashley chairs the ISA's Antiques, Furnishings, and Decorative Arts committee and appraises for charitable donation, insurance, and equitable distribution.
Client Success Manager
Manages each engagement from the first enquiry to the delivered report, and keeps you posted at every step along the way.
International Society of AppraisersAccredited Member
The Appraisal FoundationAuthorized by Congress as the source of appraisal standardsAppraiseItNow appraises antique artwork in Delaware for charitable donations, estate administration, insurance schedules, and divorce. The work is done at a distance as a rule, from images of both faces of a piece, its signature and any label, alongside invoices, exhibition history and the correspondence that came down with it.
What we value
Delaware households hold a great deal of regional illustration and landscape work, sitting beside prints, photography, bronzes and decorative objects. Each is priced against sales in the market where that kind of picture genuinely changes hands, which for illustration art is rarely the same room as the furniture it hung above.
Condition and attribution
Stretcher stamps, old labels, sale numbers and framing history show where a work has been, while relining, retouch or a trimmed sheet show what has been done to it. Both feed the figure and both are set out plainly.
The use sets the standard, and the standard sets which sales are allowed to count. Both get fixed at the start, so nobody has to guess afterwards which question the report answered.
Probate
Valuing a collection for an estate means pricing it as the market stood on a date already past, not as it stands this month. Results from the months either side of that date carry the weight, and the report names the ones it leaned on so an executor can show where every figure came from.
Donations
A charitable gift of art is supported by a valuation written for that use, naming the appraiser's basis and qualifications. We prepare the report and the appraiser's page together so a return can be assembled in one pass, rather than stalling while somebody chases a missing signature.
Divorce
When a picture came into the marriage can matter as much as what it is worth today, so a settlement often needs a value at more than one point in time. Household contents are usually valued in the same assignment.
Two Delaware rules decide who a work belongs to rather than what it is worth, and both of them end up resting on a value. One looks back to the wedding, and the other runs forward from the day a piece was handed over.
Divorce
Before the marriage
What stays out of the marital estate
For the purposes of Delaware's divorce chapter, marital property excludes the increase in value of property acquired prior to the marriage, as well as property acquired by bequest, devise or descent or by gift where conditions such as sole titling in the donee spouse's name are satisfied. A painting bought or inherited before the wedding, and the appreciation it has run up since, both sit outside the marital estate, so the file needs the value of the piece rather than an argument about the household's share of it.
Loans to museums
3 years
Then an undocumented piece can change hands
Under Delaware's Abandoned Cultural Property Act a museum may claim title to undocumented property it has held for at least three years by giving notice asserting that title, and if the lender does not respond within sixty days with written notice of intent to retain an interest, the museum's title becomes absolute. A loan with no stated expiry is treated as abandoned where seven years pass with no written communication between lender and museum. Anyone who has lent a picture and mislaid the paperwork is on a clock, and a current value is what makes a claim worth pressing.
What clients say we are known for
Across 80+ published AppraiseItNow reviews the picture is consistent: every one is from a client who paid us for an appraisal, and the three things they raise most often are that they would hire us again, how quickly we answer, and how much research is visible in the report.
The appraisal was done very well. Since he was a local artist here in Charleston, SC, they took the time to study and review Jim Booth’s art. His work has made him extremely famous, which can make an appraisal challenging, but they did a superb job and clearly explained how they arrived at the appraisal value. I highly recommend Appraise It Now and will use them again for all my artwork.
Artwork Appraisal for Insurance Coverage
AppraiseItNow did an excellent job appraising our unique art collection. Joe was always prompt and responsive, and he and his team delivered a thorough, well-supported appraisal in just a couple of weeks, even during the holiday season. I was genuinely impressed. Thank you for the great work!
Artwork Appraisal for Insurance Coverage
AppraiseItNow was amazing! My father passed with a large volume of artwork & I had no idea what it was worth. Their team was incredibly helpful and quick to respond with text and/or email to any questions as well as a status update along the way. Highly recommend!
Artwork Appraisal for Probate
I recently requested a retroactive appraisal for fine art from AppraiseItNow. I received excellent service from intake to delivery. The appraisal was delivered on time and the content of the appraisal absolutely met my expectations!
Artwork Appraisal
From the start they were very responsive, price competitive, and had a quick turn around time. Thank you so much to Joe who was very sweet in responding to my emails; I am looking forward to utilizing AppraiseItNow for many years to come.
Very thorough and professional — great communication and outstanding service. Highly impressed with their work!
Given the USPAP-compliant nature of AppraiseItNow’s appraisal reports, we prepare our deliverables for major legal, tax, and financial reporting purposes for individual and commercial clients.
Popular uses of our appraisal reports include:
Through auction records and specialist databases such as Sotheby's and Christie's archives, Invaluable, and MutualArt, supplemented by dealer and gallery sales. Realized prices matter, not asking prices, since advertised figures can differ materially from what works actually bring after negotiation and premiums.
Form 8283 is required when the claimed deduction for noncash property exceeds $500, a qualified appraisal is required for most art donations over $5,000, and items or groups valued over $20,000 require additional documentation including a photograph, per IRS Publication 561.
Each item must be separately valued at its fair market value as of the decedent's date of death, and the inventory and appraisal is filed with the Register of Wills within three months of the granting of letters. A retrospective appraisal establishes those date-of-death values for paintings and antiques.
Only narrowly. Delaware's exemption statute, 10 Del. C. section 4902, categorically exempts family pictures alongside items like the family Bible, but valuable artwork and collectibles get no automatic protection. Other property claimed as exempt must be formally valued, so a documented appraisal matters when a collection is exposed to execution or attachment.
