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Artwork appraisals in Virginia 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 Virginia, including Richmond, Virginia Beach, and Arlington.
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT ARTWORK APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, VIRGINIA 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 fine art in Virginia, from paintings and works on paper through to photography, sculpture and studio ceramics, for charitable gifts, estates, coverage and divorce. Every conclusion is built out of results that actually closed, and the report states which market level each of them sits at and what had to be adjusted to reach the piece in hand.
Charitable contributions
A deduction depends on the market in which the piece would really find a buyer, not on the retail cost of hanging an equivalent in its place. Each sale relied on is identified, so a reviewer can go and look at it without taking anything on trust.
Estate administration
Work in an estate is valued back to one day, and what counts is what closed around it. Where nothing close exists for an artist the report says how far the search widened, instead of quietly substituting another name.
Insurance schedules
A schedule is written so a limit rests on current evidence rather than on a figure carried forward from an old policy. That is a retail replacement question, and it lands on a different number from the one an estate or a settlement needs.
Equitable distribution
Divorce work turns on method as often as it turns on the picture. The standard and the date are set before anything else, every result relied on is named, and the reasoning is kept legible enough that the other side can walk it through to the same place.
Two Virginia files, reduced to a headline each. Every owner name and every figure stays behind in the working papers.
Charitable donation
A set of pieces given to nonprofits and valued for the owner deduction, each one researched against results for its own artist, medium and market level.
Insurance coverage
One work valued on its own so that a coverage limit rested on current retail evidence, not on the figure an older schedule had carried for years.
Virginia decides early whether a picture belongs to one spouse or to both, and whether an estate holding it files an inventory at all. Both answers turn on a value.
Divorce
Separate property
is what an inherited or gifted work stays in a Virginia divorce
Property acquired during a marriage by bequest, devise, descent, survivorship or gift from a source other than the other spouse is separate property in Virginia, and so is the increase in its value during the marriage, unless marital property or the personal efforts of either party contributed to that increase. Those efforts must be significant and must result in substantial appreciation before any part of the increase becomes marital, and then only to the extent it is attributable to them. The spouse who does not own the work carries the burden of showing the contribution and the increase; the owning spouse then carries the burden of showing what the contribution did not cause. Both burdens are discharged with values, not with recollection.
Estates
$35,000
of personal estate is where Virginia stops asking for an inventory at all
Where a decedent’s personal estate passing by will or by intestate succession does not exceed $35,000, and the person qualifying is an heir, a beneficiary, or a creditor whose claim exceeds the value of the estate, the clerk of the circuit court waives both the inventory and the settlement. The waiver is off the table where the decedent owned real estate over which the person qualifying would have the power of sale. A single work of any consequence can carry an estate across that line, so its value decides the paperwork as much as it decides the shares.
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:
Under the IRS fair market value definition, with a report that discloses the valuation method and the specific comparable sales relied upon. That standard governs estate, gift, and charitable contribution appraisals alike. Our appraisers document the comparables, the market level analyzed, and the adjustments made so the conclusion can withstand examination.
No, an auction estimate is a marketing range, not an appraisal. Relying on an informal valuation when a legal, tax, or insurance standard of value applies is a frequent and costly mistake art owners make. When a filing, settlement, or claim depends on the number, it needs a USPAP-compliant appraisal with documented support.
Virginia executors must report the personal property of the estate within four months of qualification, listed at fair market value rather than purchase price, with a supplemental inventory filed if assets surface later. Art discovered in a home after the initial filing is a frequent reason supplemental inventories become necessary.
Usually not when it hangs in your home. Code of Virginia § 58.1-3504 classifies oil paintings, statuary, curios, and works of art owned and used by a household as household goods and personal effects, a class local governing bodies may exempt entirely, and most do. Art used in a business does not get that treatment and may be taxable, so how a collection is held matters.
No. The instructions for Circuit Court form CC-1670 allow similar household property to be grouped, but any article specifically mentioned in the will, or worth over $500, should be listed separately at its date-of-death fair market value. The same instructions ask for stamps, coins and other collectibles to be valued as a collection rather than piece by piece. An appraisal that follows those lines gives the court figures that hold up.
