Inherited Art or Antiques? How to Find Out What They're Worth
An inherited collection usually arrives all at once: paintings, furniture, clocks, silver, porcelain — some treasured, some mysterious, and no way of knowing which is which. Before anything is sold, donated, or discarded, work through this sequence. Estates are where valuable works are most often lost for the price of a house clearance.
Step 1: secure and document everything
Photograph every piece — front, back, marks, labels, damage — before anything moves. Backs of paintings and undersides of furniture carry the attribution evidence. Gather any paperwork the previous owner kept: receipts, old appraisals, insurance schedules, auction catalogues, and letters. Provenance documents can be worth more than they look.
Step 2: triage with instant appraisals
The core problem with an estate is volume: professional appraisal of every object is prohibitively expensive, but guessing risks giving away the one valuable piece. AI appraisal solves the triage problem — photograph each item with ArtVal and get an identification and value range in about a minute per piece, so an afternoon sorts a whole house into “ordinary,” “interesting,” and “get this professionally examined.” Our guides to valuing paintings and online antique appraisal cover what the estimates rest on.
Step 3: certified appraisals where they're required
If the estate goes through probate or owes estate tax, valuations may need to be certified — and the requirements are strictest exactly where values are highest. Bring the appraiser your triage results: knowing which twenty of two hundred objects matter turns weeks of billable time into days.
Step 4: keep, insure, sell, or donate
- Keep: pieces of significant value belong on an insurance schedule, which requires a certified appraisal.
- Sell: match the piece to the venue — international auction for major works, regional auction for good middle-market pieces, estate sale or marketplace for the rest. Realized comparable prices tell you which tier you're in.
- Donate: donations above tax-deduction thresholds require a qualified appraisal — before the donation, not after.
The golden rule
Never let anything leave the house unidentified. The cost of checking is now effectively zero — a photograph and a minute of AI research — while the cost of not checking is occasionally a small fortune. See what a full appraisal looks like in the sample antique report.