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Artwork appraisals in South Carolina 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 South Carolina, including Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville.
…they did a superb job and clearly explained how they arrived at the appraisal value
…the content of the appraisal absolutely met my expectations!
…even during the holiday season… I was genuinely impressed
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT ARTWORK APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, SOUTH CAROLINA 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, works on paper, sculpture and regional craft in South Carolina, for gifts to museums and charities, probate and estate inventories, insurance schedules, and property divided in a divorce. What the report will be used for is settled first: it fixes the standard of value and the effective date, and those two choices govern which sales may stand as evidence at all.
Donations
A charitable contribution of a painting is reported at what it would sell for on the day it changes hands, supported by completed sales of comparable work rather than by a gallery's asking price.
Estates
Probate wants a figure for each piece an heir may receive and a total the court can read. Where several works by one hand would reach the market together, that belongs in the analysis instead of being set aside.
South Carolina collections mix national names with work that trades mostly inside the state: Charleston Renaissance painting, Lowcountry landscapes, Gullah Geechee basketry and Edgefield stoneware. Each has its own buyers, and a value built from the wrong pool of sales is the first thing a reviewer takes apart.
Regional markets
Where an artist's sales are few and mostly local, the analysis widens to dealer and private transactions and states plainly how thin the record is. That disclosure is what makes the conclusion usable.
Craft and folk work
A sweetgrass basket, a piece of Edgefield pottery or a carved decoy is priced from the collectors who actually buy them, with maker, form, age and condition weighed the way that market weighs them.
The same work carries more than one correct value at the same moment, and which one belongs in a document depends on who will read it. The standard goes into the report so the next reader is never left guessing.
Insurance
Scheduling a work asks what replacing it would cost at retail. A filing asks what it would sell for between a willing buyer and a willing seller. Using one where the other belongs overstates or understates the claim.
How it runs
Photographs front and back, sizes, signatures, labels and whatever paperwork the owner holds carry most assignments through, with a visit where condition is disputed or a collection is too large to photograph well. Silver and other contents go into our South Carolina silver work.
Two South Carolina rules touch artwork directly. One sets how recent a value has to be when an estate hands a work to a beneficiary, and the other marks out a South Carolina craft the state does not tax at the counter.
Distribution
Thirty days
How recent a value must be at distribution
Where a devise payable in money is satisfied with property instead, South Carolina values that property at fair market value as of the date of distribution. For assets without readily ascertainable values, which is where artwork sits, a valuation as of a date not more than thirty days before distribution controls if it is otherwise reasonable, and the personal representative may employ qualified appraisers to establish it even though the same assets were appraised earlier in the administration. A beneficiary's right to object to the kind or value of what they receive ends thirty days after the proposal for distribution is mailed.
Sales tax
Exempt
Sweetgrass baskets at the register
South Carolina's list of sales tax exemptions includes sweetgrass baskets made by artists of South Carolina using locally grown sweetgrass. The exemption is a tax rule and not a statement of worth, but it marks out a craft the state treats as its own, and the collectors who buy these baskets are the market a donation or insurance figure has to be drawn 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
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
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
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:
Recent arm's-length sales of comparable works, drawn from auction record databases such as Artnet, Artprice, and AskART and from auction house archives. We adjust those comparables for artist, medium, size, condition, and provenance, then reconcile them into a single fair market value conclusion, which is the analysis the IRS expects an art appraisal report to document.
Yes. Once the claimed deduction passes $5,000, the IRS requires a qualified appraisal and Form 8283, Section B. Donations of art claimed at $50,000 or more are routinely reviewed by the IRS Art Advisory Panel, so the report must identify the valuation method and the specific comparable sales behind the concluded value.
No. Auction estimates are non-binding marketing figures designed to stimulate bidding, and they are not prepared to IRS, insurance, or court standards. Insurance scheduling typically calls for retail replacement value while tax work requires fair market value, and the two can differ substantially for the same piece, so the assignment determines which number we develop.
No. Family courts follow equitable distribution, dividing marital property fairly rather than automatically equally, and they value assets as of the filing date or another date the court selects. Artwork acquired during the marriage needs fair market value support as of that chosen date, and a documented appraisal keeps a collection from being argued by guesswork.