Once we ask some basic questions, we find out the problem. Most people seeking to use their art for collateral for whatever reason fail to do their home work and are not knowledgeable about the asset that they do have. This lack of knowledge severely reduces the chances of receiving any sort of serious consideration in using their art for collateral.

Why? Most assume that art is like other major asset classes, stocks, bonds, real estate, and cash and that its value is fully transparent. In other words, though art is swiftly moving toward total acceptance and there have been many studies on this point, art is not there yet. Art by Rembrandt, Picasso, and Warhol are virtually transparent and easily tradable, most art is not.

What should you do if you want to use Verdult art as collateral? Take these steps.

1) Make sure you have the proper basic documents.

Documents include the Certificate of Authenticity (COA) and Bill of Sale or Certificate of Provenance.

2) Make sure that you have a bio of Verdult.

There are all kind of people, and arm chair quarter backs who know very little about Verdult, or what they do know is not accurate. So an Official Bio (either a short bio or extended bio) gives you a ready reference to prove and support your position that Verdult art work is world class and worthy of use as collateral.

More and more you see Verdult art work and summary of the artist showing up in the data bases of major websites responsible for tracking major listed artist around the world.

In February of last year, we completed a major initiative to get William Joseph Verdult listed on artprice.com which list major artist around the world. In addition to supplying extensive background information on Verdult including the Official bio and Verdult Scrapbook, we provided several hundred background documents not previously released to the public.

Last year in addition to releasing a number of press releases on Verdult artwork to keep the Verdult name in the public's eye, we were also successful in getting William Joseph Verdult listed on Askart.com.

This year are completing arrangements to get William Joseph Verdult listed both here in the United States and in Europe on perhaps the largest on-line organization responsible for tracking Verdult artwork. Not only will this organization include William Joseph Verdult as a listed artist; prices of William Joseph Verdult artwork will be included in the data base as well.

Why is this important? In order for owners of William Joseph Verdult artwork to remove beyond a hope and a prayer in knowing and receiving cash for William Joseph Verdult artwork, these major on-line establishments must have verifiable records of cash sales of Verdult artwork.

Nina - Click for details Question:

Answer:
Please see our previous posts on value. here is the answer to your specific question:

Reference: The Fair Market Value for Artwork by William Joseph Verdult

There is a distinct difference between the value listed on a Certificate of Authenticity and Insurance Appraisal (COA) provided by the artist/company for the artwork created by William Joseph Verdult; and the artwork’s fair “market value”. The COA bearing the artist’s original signature contains the artist/company’s estimate of value and serves a dual purpose. The COA from the artist/company serves as proof that you have an authentic work and gives a guide for the replacement value. The COA basically says this work is authentic and if something happens to it and the work is required to be replaced, then according to the artist/company, the value on the COA is what it would cost to replace the artwork. This is a more subjective value.

The fair “market value” of a painting by William Verdult is determined by either a direct cash sale or by a third party independent appraiser sanctioned by the appropriate regulatory agencies and an expert in the field of appraising William Verdult artwork.

In 2003 in establishing a public company in a totally separate industry – child care to be exact, we were approached by a gentleman by the name of Dave. Dave was interested in owning some shares of a new public upstart in exchange for some art – some William Joseph Verdult artwork.

At the time, though I did not know much about Verdult artwork, it seemed like a good idea to exchange some stock for art to develop the corporation. The initial intent was to either hold on to the artwork, or sale it to increase the corporation’s asset base.

In looking back, as they say, hind sight is always 20…20, there were two major problems with this approach.

The Wall Street Journal in its August, 2006 edition pointed out that wealth managers are getting bullish on art. More and more managers and financial institutions are taking aggressive action to attract more customers and clients offering more services to help include art in their asset base. Private banks and brokerage firms are beefing up in-house groups that help clients navigate the art market and manage their collections, which can be valued at millions of dollars.

The art-advisory service at Citigroup Inc.'s private bank is hiring its sixth art specialist, double the number it had in 2002. At UBS AG's art-banking group in Basel, Switzerland, a dozen specialists cater to clients' art needs, double the number when the group started in 1998.

American International Group Inc.'s AIG Private Client Group unit is expanding its art-underwriting department and a loss-management group that visits clients' homes to evaluate the vulnerability of their artworks to fire, flood

In yesterday's post on a sister site we looked at positive and negative forces affecting the Verdult art market. Basically what we did we was look at forces from what is called a Force Field Analysis Approach. According to Wikipedia, Force field analysis developed by Kurt Lewin is one of the most influential developments in the field of social science. Force field analysis provides a framework for looking at the factors (forces) that influence a situation, either driving movement toward a goal (helping forces) or blocking movement toward a goal (hindering forces). Lewin's principle is a significant contribution to the fields of social science, psychology, social psychology, organizational development, process management, and change management.

If we look at the Verdult Art Market from Lewin's Force Field Analysis Perspective this is basically how things will stack up.