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Artwork appraisals in Minnesota 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 Minnesota, including Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and Duluth.
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT ARTWORK APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, MINNESOTA 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 paintings, prints, sculpture and works on paper in Minnesota for charitable gifts, estate filings, insurance scheduling and property divisions. Most of the work runs online, from high resolution photographs, invoices and whatever documentation came with the piece, with a visit where a collection is large enough to warrant one.
Single works
An oil, a watercolor or a bronze is measured against completed sales by the same artist, then adjusted for condition, scale, subject and the strength of the record behind it. The report names the sales it used and says what each adjustment was for.
Prints and photography
What an edition brings depends on its number, the proofs outside it, the state of the plate or negative afterward, and whether earlier impressions exist. Those details come off the paperwork a seller provided, then get checked against results.
Whole collections
Where a Minnesota collection runs to dozens of works, similar pieces are grouped and valued together while the few that carry the weight are treated on their own. Household contents sitting alongside the art are handled in the same file.
The standard follows the file. A gift and an estate are each measured at fair market value on one particular date, a policy schedule is written at what replacement would cost, and a property division asks what the work was worth on the day the court uses.
Gifts and estates
A donated work is valued as of the date of the gift and an estate at the date of death, with the comparable sales listed so a reviewer can follow the reasoning. A donor claiming more than five thousand dollars files Form 8283 with the appraisal behind it.
Policies and divisions
A carrier schedules at what an equivalent work would cost at retail today, which sits above any tax figure for the same piece. A division needs one independent number tied to a single date, so a painting is not argued over twice. Where the argument is about an earlier date, the value is written retrospectively to that day.
Three Minnesota rules reach a work of art before anyone puts a number on it: who owns a painting sitting in a gallery, what a print seller has to put in writing, and when the state wants an estate measured.
Galleries
Trust property
is what a Minnesota gallery holds, not its own inventory
When an artist delivers a work of their own creation to a Minnesota art dealer for exhibition or sale, delivery and acceptance make it a consignment. The dealer becomes the artist’s agent, the work is held in trust for the artist and is not subject to claim by a creditor of the dealer, the dealer carries responsibility for loss or damage, and sale proceeds are trust funds applied first to what the artist is owed. It stays trust property until the artist has been paid in full. Minnesota defines artist to include the heirs and personal representatives of someone who has died, so an estate with work out on a gallery floor is on the protected side of that line and has an asset to value rather than a debt to chase.
Prints
$250
is where the Minnesota print disclosure rules begin
A fine print sold in Minnesota has to come with an invoice, receipt or certificate disclosing the artist and the year of printing, the authorized number of proofs and the total size of the edition, whether the plate or negative was destroyed, altered or defaced after the latest edition, and whether prior or later editions exist. A seller who does not know a detail must say so, and a seller may instead post that the information is available on request. Prints offered below $250 fall outside the rule, as do prints sold without a catalog that are not held out as signed limited editions. Those same facts are what separate one impression from another, so a complete disclosure is usually where a usable appraisal file starts.
Estate deadline
9 months
after a death is when Minnesota wants the estate measured
A Minnesota estate tax return and the payment it carries are both due nine months after the date of death. The state allows an automatic six month extension to file and no extension to pay, so a value that lands late can carry interest even when the return itself is on time. Where a collection is the part of the estate whose number is least settled, that nine month clock is the one worth working backward from.
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:
Only if the taxable estate exceeds Minnesota's exclusion of roughly $3 million, with graduated rates reaching 16%; the state has no separate inheritance tax. Artwork counts toward that threshold at fair market value, so collections can push an otherwise modest estate over the line, and the appraisal is what documents it either way.
Within six months of the personal representative's appointment, in an inventory stating each item's fair market value as of the date of death along with any encumbrances. A professional appraisal of significant works gives the representative values that will hold up if interested persons or the court question them.
Rarely. The cost approach based on materials and labor is generally inappropriate for fine art, and income methods apply only to art producing predictable revenue. For nearly all antique and fine artwork, value rests on comparable sales from auction records and documented private transactions.
A great deal. Ownership history evidences authenticity and can add measurable premiums when it links a work to important collections or events, while artist identity alone accounts for an estimated 30% to 40% of value variance. Keep invoices, exhibition records, and catalog entries with the work.
