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Antique artwork appraisals in West Virginia for donations, estate tax, insurance, and divorce, prepared in accordance with USPAP and IRS requirements. AppraiseItNow appraises oil paintings, watercolors, prints, sculptures, and folk art across West Virginia, including Charleston, Huntington, and Morgantown.
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT ANTIQUE ARTWORK APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, WEST 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 antique artwork in West Virginia for charitable donations, estate settlement, insurance schedules, and the division of marital property. The assignment is normally handled remotely, and what we ask for is the work as a camera sees it: the face, the reverse, the edges, any label or stencil, and the papers that travelled with it.
What we value
Nineteenth century oils, works on paper, studio pottery, carved and painted folk pieces, and prints by artists with a national record all pass through here. A comparable has to be drawn from the market where that particular piece would really sell.
Condition
A relined canvas, a bleached sheet, a replaced stretcher or heavy retouch each pull on a value, and how hard depends on the piece and its buyers. The condition finding and the adjustment it caused sit next to each other in the report.
Attribution
Marks, labels, stencils and old inventory numbers are recorded and weighed against the body of work they point at. Where the evidence will not carry a name, the valuation says so and prices the piece as what it can be shown to be.
The standard follows the use, and the date follows the standard. One collection can need two reports inside the same year without either of them being wrong.
Estates
Artwork reaches an estate's appraisement at fair market value as of the day the owner died, which often has little to do with what the market is doing when the file is assembled. We price from sales around that day.
Donations
A donated work is valued for the return the donor files, in a report written for that purpose with the appraiser's basis set out on the page. The piece, the recipient and the reasoning all have to line up.
Insurance
Scheduling a collection takes what replacing each work would cost in the market where it would be bought, which is usually well above the figure an estate would use. Household contents are commonly scheduled in the same assignment.
An inherited painting, a restored one and a sold one are each handled differently in West Virginia. These three rules surface again and again in the files we write, and every one of them turns on a value.
Divorce
Marital funds
What turns separate value into marital value
Marital property in West Virginia includes the amount of any increase in value in the separate property of either spouse where that increase results from an expenditure of funds which are marital property, including spending that reduces indebtedness, extinguishes liens or otherwise increases the net value of the separate property, or from work performed by either or both of the parties during the marriage. A painting one spouse inherited stays separate, but conservation, reframing or restoration paid for out of marital money can make part of its gain divisible, and settling that takes two values rather than one.
Valuation date
The separation date
When the marital estate is measured
The court determines the net value of all marital property of the parties as of the date of the separation of the parties, or as of such later date as it determines to be more appropriate for attaining an equitable result. For artwork that has moved sharply since a household broke up, the effective date is doing as much work as the comparables are, so a report has to name the date it answers and price to it.
Selling
An isolated sale
Why a single sale is not taxed
West Virginia exempts an isolated transaction in which tangible personal property is sold, transferred or offered for sale by the owner, or by the owner's representative for the owner's account, where the sale is not made in the ordinary course of repeated and successive transactions of like character. The statute then goes further: an owner who sells in an isolated transaction through an auctioneer may still claim the exemption, regardless of where the sale takes place. Selling one inherited picture is not dealing in pictures, and the value in hand is what shows which of the two is going on.
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 market analysis of comparable sales drawn from auction records, dealer and gallery transactions, and specialist databases, not from a generic price formula or consumer blue book. Antique paintings and works on paper trade in specific market segments, and the comparables have to come from the segment where your piece would actually sell.
Because they can move value dramatically, and a credible appraisal explains its adjustments rather than just stating a number. Overcleaning, relining, retouching, or a replaced panel each affect what buyers pay, so we document condition in detail and show how it shaped the concluded value of each work.
On the appraisement form prescribed by the Tax Commissioner, listing fair market value as of the date of death, filed within 90 days after the personal representative qualifies under West Virginia Code § 44-1-14. Antique artwork with meaningful value is typically supported by a professional appraisal behind those figures.
Not if it is held purely for personal enjoyment; household goods and personal effects not held or used for profit are exempt from West Virginia ad valorem tax and are not even listed on the property forms. Art held for investment or used in a business is different: it is taxable personal property assessed at 60% of fair market value, and it belongs on the annual return.
