Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Emerald Art Services LLC Receives 2013 Best of Akron Award
Akron Award Program Honors the Achievement
AKRON May 13, 2013 — Emerald Art Services has been selected for the 2013 Best of Akron Award in the Photographers category by the Akron Award Program.
Each year, the Akron Award Program identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Akron area a great place to live, work and play.
Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2013 Akron Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Akron Award Program and data provided by third parties.
About Akron Award Program
The Akron Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Akron area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.
The Akron Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in our community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to recognize the small business community’s contributions to the U.S. economy.
SOURCE: Akron Award Program
CONTACT:
Akron Award Program
Email: PublicRelations@awardprogram.org
URL: http://www.awardprogram.org
Fine Art, Wine & Collectible Appraisals
June 30, 2011
Emerald Art Services
Emerald Art Services provides ISA and USPAP compliant personal property appraisals for Estate Planning, Obtaining Insurance, Charitable Donations, Probate, Diminished Value, Liquidation or Divorce.
Specialties include Paintings, Prints, Ceramics, Orientalia, Collectibles, Sacred Artifacts and Wine.
Cris Drugan is an accredited appraiser with the International Society of Appraisers and has been providing appraisal services for 15 years.
Contact Cris at 330-630-5645 or see our web site at www.emeraldartservices.com OR Cris@emeraldartservices.com
Art Loss – Fraud, Theft or Damage
March 9, 2011
It’s more exciting and newsworthy to talk about theft. The FBI’s art theft program Web site states: “Art and cultural property crime – which includes theft, fraud, looting, and trafficking across state and international lines – is a looming criminal enterprise with estimated losses running as high as $6 billion annually.” It is difficult to calculate a total dollar value because a substantial number of art crimes are not reported. When it comes to actual art thefts, the reality is far less romantic than Hollywood’s version. Thefts more closely resemble shoplifting than a scene from “The Thomas Crown Affair”. “They’re usually inside jobs by staff,” said Donald Soss, vice president for personal insurance on the West Coast at Fireman’s Fund. The employee is working with someone and gives them the alarm codes. It’s not that interesting to discuss a forklift going through a painting or a tracker-trailer overturn on a freeway. In general, more losses to artwork are due to damage rather than theft or fraud.
It is estimated that near $100 million in fine art was destroyed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. According to insurance industry art experts, a majority of the art was underinsured. In addition, to this day, some of the smallest art galleries in New York have more money on their walls than banks do in their cash drawers, yet many still lack adequate security and insurance protection.
When the economy began to decline in late 2007, early 2008, it was expected that insurance fraud would most likely increase. And, as the unemployment rate, the cost of gasoline and the foreclosure rates all increased, an increase in insurance fraud became a certainty. Industry studies estimate the annual cost of insurance fraud is between $85 and $120 billion, and is growing at a rate of 10% per year. The Florida Dept. of Ins. reported an increase of 9.6% in homeowner fraud from 2008 to 2009, while South Carolina reported a 12% increase. While this represents all homeowner fraud, theft and damage to scheduled property can make up a significant portion of the losses.
Take for example sports memorabilia fraud. The problem may account for upwards of $500,000,000 in losses annually. The forgers used fake third-party authenticators in most cases, but in a few situations they sought out inexperienced authenticators who unknowingly approved fraudulent Certificates of authenticity (COA’s). Pricing is also fostering the forgery of what are claimed to be original items. With recent sales of;
- a 1948 Carlo Mollino (1905-1973) trestle table auctioned by Christie’s sold for US$3.8 million
- items by Jean Prouvé (1901-1984) – a Kangaroo chair sold for US$136,800, a reading table for the Maison de l’Etudiant sold for US$556,800 and a pair of perforated metal doors for the Maison Tropicale reached US$680,000
- a Marc Newson Lockheed lounge sold for $200,000
- an Eileen Gray (1878-1976) 1923 lacquered console table sold for US$534,000 while a lacquered screen sold for US$374,000
- a 1847 Mauritius Blue stamp sold for US$3.8 million in 1993
- a $176,000 was realized for a 1905 Steiff teddy bear and $231,000 for an 1875 US tin toy
vendors can falsely assert an item’s authenticity and on occasion provide a phony provenance document or even another signed document. There is a price threshold beneath which there is little concern for provenance or forensic analysis to prove authenticity. For many buyers and insurers the cost of consultation with experts or detailed forensic examinations will often be more than the price of an item. While on the other hand, if the authenticity and accurate value are not verified, collectors and insurer’s can experience huge financial losses.
*One reason for fraud is simply the limits of supply. Demand continues to grow but antiques are a nonrenewable resource. Supposedly around 80% of “ancient” terracotta’s smuggled from Mali since the 1980s have been fakes and some estimates suggest that around 60% of antiquities from China are of contemporary manufacture.
Mechanisms for forgery include –
- fake signatures – adding a recognized artist’s signature (often considered to be a valuable indicator of originality) to an unsigned work not executed by that artist or by deleting an existing signature in favor of one from a more recognized artist
- completing unfinished works – ‘restoring’ an incomplete work from an earlier period (with the requisite signs of age), particularly in a way that ‘improves’ it
- misrepresentation – deliberately selling a retouched work by a master’s protégé (or merely from the corresponding period) as that of the particular master
- reproduction – reproducing an original and selling that copy as the original
- pastiche – copying details from different work by a particular artist for amalgamation as an unrecorded unique work by that artist
- drafts – simulating drafts of a major work, such as an oil painting or sculpture, by concocting sketches of figures.
*the last section on fakes and mechanisms for forgery are from…
June 2008
© Bruce Arnold
caslon.com.au | caslon analytics
Significant problems found with current appraisals
February 24, 2011
An appraisal is a record of an item to prove its existence, establish its identity and communicate a value through an established methodology.
In reviewing a number of artwork and collectible appraisals for various insurance companies across the country, the vast majority (85%) lacked the information needed to identify the work should there be a loss. Identification is, at least as important, if not more important than the value. Without proper and complete identification, value conclusions can be skewed. I’m not just talking about identifying the artist and “title” of a piece; I’m talking about the physical description and content of the piece. Can you recreate an image of what the piece is or more often, was, from the description? Size, support, medium, genre, content and colour are all significant in correct identification and valuation.
The insurance company exposure on improperly insured artwork, collectibles and jewelry is significant. Thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars can be lost on one claim. Insurance companies need to know what they are insuring in order for actuary to properly price their product. This starts with underwriting understanding the need for proper identification of this type of property. Underwriting guidelines usually indicate only when an appraisal is required (if an item is valued over $5,000). When dealing with artwork and collectibles to jewelry, specific requirements as to appraisal content should also be included in the guidelines. By doing this, it would also assist the claims staff in their investigation, settlement and possible recovery of missing or stolen items.
Emerald Art Services provides consulting and appraisal services to insurance companies and private clients across the country. Visit WWW.EMERALDARTSERVICES.COM for additional details.
See my new provider page…
September 7, 2010
See my new provider page
AT
http://www.art-care.com/providers/?id=912
A Free Service Connecting Owners of Art, Antiques and Other Objects with Experienced Service Providers
New Rule on Cargo Is Shaking Art World
February 23, 2010
Let me first post the credits… New York Times, Randy Kennedy, Feb. 12th 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/arts/design/13transport.html?sudsredirect=true
Here’s the edited version:
…the stuff of real nightmares: the possibility that airline employees could open carefully crated works of art to search them the way checked baggage is sometimes searched now, poking around Picasso’s instead of sweaters and socks. Art-shipping experts say that the burden of the new regulations will fall more heavily on galleries and private dealers than on museums, which typically plan exhibitions years in advance and can arrange for shipping that avoids passenger planes. “And so you have a Ming vase in special foam, and an airline subcontractor has to take that out and then repack it because he got a false positive on an explosive swab test,” said Mary C. Pontillo, an assistant vice president of the DeWitt Stern Group. “It’s a big understatement that that’s something you don’t want to happen.” But the new rules could lead to delayed shipments. And even the faint possibility of an airline inspector with a screwdriver uncrating a Calder sculpture or an early Renaissance tempera painting could be enough to cause collectors to think twice.
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Although the Transportation Security Administration’s 49 CFR, subchapter 3, Civil Aviation Security, part 1549 (Certified Cargo Screening Program) [http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=669109c0a3a410a9af9e196c48076dcf&rgn=div5&view=text&node=49:9.1.3.5.15&idno=49] allows for the availability to apply for setting up a secure screening area, only the largest institutions will be able to consider the expense.
Can you imagine TSA inspectors inexperienced in art handling opening up valuable art and rummaging through it! Will it be re-packed correctly for the rest of the journey? The probability of inspections of crated artwork is low if not only because of the volume of cargo that is shipped on a daily basis. But IT CAN happen.
Will insurance policies cover damage by a government agency? Is a TSA search considered a governmental action, thus excluded by many insurance policies? Not to mention the inability to subrogate for damage caused by a governmental agency, even if covered by your policy.
This regulation has far reaching impact on Collectors, Museums, Galleries and Insurers. We will have to see what happens after this goes into effect after August 1st. I’ll watch for instances of damage, if reported, and report the results here on my blog.
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