Credentials - What's the Big Deal ?

"A credential is an attestation of qualification, competence, or authority issued to an individual by a third party with a relevant de jure or de facto authority or assumed competence to do so." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credential ) I like the succinct quality of this definition of credential. Credentials quite simply are the basis of everything that holds an appraisal organization together as they represent the standards by which we are all judged. Educating the public about our credentials and our standard is the means by which we market our services to prospective clients. Credentials are the single most important tool we own as appraisers.

Having said all that, we had a problem during the recent conference in Charleston when we were introduced to Alvah Beander , an appraiser from Washington DC specializing in African and African American art. In January when I saw the conference promotions and her listing as an African art specialist , I was very curious because no one I ever dealt with had heard of her. I alerted ISA's leadership that something was not completely right. I didn't hear anything back until I saw her lecture listed in the conference schedule as: “Are you Alone? Are you Sitting Down: The Cultural Art of the Gullah People”, Alvah Beander, Certified Member of ASA. Because clearly these credentials were not correct, I was stunned to see them in print.. As late as today, April 10, 2009, ASA has no listing for Ms. Beander as either an accredited or certified member and certainly not as a specialist in African art. As many of you know there is no certified appraiser in ASA - only accredited member (AM) and accredited senior appraiser (ASA).

Ms. Beander's bio on her website lists her credentials as follows:
"Alvah T. Beander is a certified personal property appraiser specializing in African, African American and African Diaspora art. Upon completing the requirements of senior level appraiser in the American Society of Appraisers (ASA) she will become the first African American and women awarded the designation in African art. Alvah was the former owner of two galleries located in Old Town, Alexandria, Va." http://www.maathoth.com/files/QuickSiteImages/Alvah__bio_for_Foundation.doc


At the end of her recent article on appraising African art in the Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies, Ms. Beander kept most of the same wording but omitted the reference to being certified:
"Alvah T. Beander specializes in African, African American and African Diaspora art. Upon completing the requirements (pending) of senior level appraiser in the American Society of Appraisers (ASA) she will become the first African American and women awarded the designation in African Sculpture. Alvah was the owner of two African art galleries located in Old Town Alexandria, Va." Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies 2009 p. 325

The Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies website had Ms. Beander listed as a certified appraiser: however this was modified as noted below.

Pictured here is Foundation Board Member Judith Vance ASA, Accredited Senior Appraiser in Fine Arts (right) with Alvah Beander , member of ASA specializing in African art. MS Beander was a speaker at the ISA Conference held in Charleston in March 2009. She is also a contributor to the Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies - 2009 with an article “A Guide to Appraising African Art”. (Pasted from <http://www.appraisaljournal.org/).
ASA will not even list candidate members much less their specialties. I believe at this point in her career Ms. Beander is a Candidate Member of ASA. I have never seen this credential in print, so I assume this cannot be used in print as credentials. The only accredited specialist in African art in ASA as of April 10, 2009 is Charles S. Greco, AM from Reston, Virginia, which ironically is in the DC area. In my opinion this misstatement warrants a letter of correction from Ms Beander.

I don't know Alvah Beander and I have never seen any of her appraisals, but I would hope that at some point she would write a letter to ISA seeking a correction and setting the record straight about her credentials. So why should this be important to me and to you? It is important because the credentials that we have all worked for are critical to our credibility as professionally trained appraisers. I certainly can't speak for ISA, ISA's Board of Directors, or the Journal for Advanced Appraisal Studies; however, in my judgment we need to hear from our leaders and we need to have a dialogue on issues of this importance. Our members need to trust the information that is provided. We do not need at this point to indict anyone; however, it would be helpful to know that issues like this are taken seriously and will be handled with greater care in the future. Some of you may be tempted to use this as an opportunity to make this about me. To the contrary this is about us and I certainly would have been very content to stay in the background and let the principles handle it. I have kept silent; however, now it is painfully obvious that nothing will happen. You won't hear any names from me, but the response I got was to suggest that I pursue an ethical complaint with ASA. That is just not good enough. This is really not about Beander, ASA, or African art… it is all about ISA and ensuring that we take care of our own business.

On a related topic, there was much that I disagreed with in Ms. Beander's article in the Journal on appraising African art. That is a completely separate issue for another day. JB

De Young Museums Agrees to sell

The San Francisco Chronicle reported today that the De Young Museum has agreed to sell 76 pieces from the Friede collection donation of Oceanic art. The collection is believed by many experts to be the finest group of works from Papua New Guinea every assembled. The law suit over inheritance between John Friede and his brothers has been ongoing. See the following link to the CHronicle article for additional details: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/21/MNL9176M15.DTL

Tola Trichrome, Greater Nicoya area, Costa Rica, 300 BC-AD 500. The effigies all have the geometric designs on a red ground, and the modeled faces represent reptiles, bats, or monkeys. This is a very large and elaborate example.

Price on request

In Memoriam


Richard Faletti

"Retired Chicago attorney Richard Joseph Faletti of Clarendon Hills, a respected collector and appraiser of African art, died Dec. 25 at age 84 of brain cancer in his Phoenix, Ariz., home.
A 1949 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, he had flown in combat missions during World War II as an Army Air Corps captain.
Mr. Faletti joined Winston & Strawn in 1955 and opened its Hong Kong office in the early 1980s. He was managing partner in the Phoenix office from 1985 until his retirement in 1989.
His interest in African art began when his corporate practice took him to Nigeria in the 1970s. He became a member of the advisory committee of the African and Amerindian Art Department of The Art Institute of Chicago.
Mr. Faletti's acquisitions were a traveling exhibition, “A Sense of Wonder: African Art from the Faletti Family Collection,” in U.S. museums during the 1990s. Pieces from the collection have been donated to the Art Institute and the Spurlock Museum at the University of Illinois."
Illinois State Bar Association

Your art market - what the heck is going on...

This is undoubtedly the question on everyone's mind as we have seen stock portfolios drop and retirement plans for many put off for a decade. There actually is some logic to what is happening and now we have enough data to draw some conclusions. Not all that we are being told is unfortunately true.

President Obama plans to adjust the benefits for charitable giving. This is summed up on the website philanthropy.com as :

"In a document outlining his 2010 budget plans, President Obama proposed limiting the value of the tax break for itemized deductions, including donations to charity, to 28 percent for families making more than $250,000. In other words, taxpayers would save 28 cents on their federal income taxes for each dollar donated.

That would reduce by as much as 20 percent the amount wealthy taxpayers could get in tax breaks. Under the current system, taxpayers who are in the 33 percent or 35 percent tax brackets use that rate to claim deductions."

President Obama has said that he doubts this move would have an adverse impact on charitable giving. I haven't found an institution or a donor yet that agrees with this opinion. So clearly there is a pull back here and a pull back in the general "bricks and mortar" and operation fund giving to institutions. And remember many of these institutions are also funded by stock portfolio endowments which are obviously yielding less income. Our main stream media is not covering this but it is all over the internet. A few examples" Field Museum president John McCarter announced in the face of "30% less funding" the cancellation of Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia featuring the 3.2 million-year-old fossil Lucy. The Indianapolis Museum of Art announced the delay of projects and a budget cut of 1.7 million dollars. The Saint Louis Art was in the midst of a $125 million dollar expansion program that is now on hold. The Los Angeles County Museum, Miami Art Museum, and the Cincinnati Art Museum have postponed renovation projects. The Minnesota Museum of American Art is closing with the county planning on selling its building. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles has been bailed out by Eli Broad with a 30 million dollar loan. The Detroit Institute which was in trouble before the economic crisis is seeing a 20% reduction in the 33 million dollar budget which is supported by only 1 million dollars in public funding. And the list could go on but you get the point - non profits need help ..not further cuts in support.

Since last fall the art world has been very unpredictable. If you had to make a general statement, there is some credibility in the statement that great things still find buyers. Clearly whether you are asking yourself whether to buy or to sell, you will be better off if you are a professional buyer or seller. The art market like wall street is in normal times not for the amateurs. Certainly now the climate is even dicier.

The recent Russian sales at Sothebys and Christies showed some spark with some lots; however, overall the auctions were below estimates and disappointing. Sothebys' fall contemporary art sale did not encourage the art market. The sale totaled $125.1 million, well under Sotheby's estimates of $203.3 million to $281.6 million. Of the 63 works for sale, only 43, or 68%, found buyers. This news was actually worse considering Sothebys previous economic reports that stated : "Sothebys reported operating revenues for the third quarter, ended Sept. 30, decreased 11 percent to $76 million. The auction house said the $9.1 million decline is largely due to a higher level of principal losses on auction guarantees, as well as lower private sale commissions and lower auction commission margins.

Approximately $42 million of the guarantee losses relate to property offered in recent fourth quarter auction sales, as well as estimated losses related to guaranteed property to be offered in upcoming Contemporary Art sales in New York, the New York-based company said."

A major bright spot in the 2009 auction year came at Christies Paris. ABC reported the results as follows: " The collection of Saint Laurent and his partner, Pierre Berge, broke several world records in a three-day "sale of the century" that amassed more than $484 million (euro373 million), said the organizer, Christie's.
That was well over the euro200 million-euro300 million ($250 million-$380 million) the 733-piece sale had been expected to fetch. Berge told reporters at the closing news conference he was "very, very happy with the result."
"I considered that with the death of Yves Saint Laurent that this collection had reached its end, that it was finished," Berge said. "I am sure that those who bought these works of art are going to welcome them ... with the same passion that Yves and I had during so many years."

The November Sothebys tribal art sale in November featuring works from the Rosenthal collection performed better than many experts expected. In addition Skinners' Boston sale of tribal art of largely medium quality material actually did fairly well. Out of about 400 lots only 10% failed to sell. Granted there were some nice things in the sale but there were certainly a number of medium to lower medium level objects. That result is somewhat surprising in a down economy. Bonhams London took a shot at contemporary African art that was received with a lukewarm response. The few stars seemed to be enough to schedule another sale in December 2009. In tribal art we are waiting for some indication of direction that will come from the May and June sales in New York and Paris. If these sales are successful, a great many doom and gloom forecasters will be covering their backsides by finding the rationale why it happened. There are some great things coming to auction, so I wouldn't bet against the market during this very unpredictable period. Before chasing any objects, if you aren't a pro, then find one.