It’s no secret that Charleston and the American South possess a rich, historic, and vibrant art scene. From centuries-old collections to modern mediums and perspectives, our beloved region is peppered with treasures, masterpieces –– and trinkets. What separates the artwork in museums and fine home collections from chotchkies and forgeries is their actual, appraised valuation.
I sat down with Rebekah Jacob, one of a rare few in Charleston who are actually certified fine art appraisers. Jacob earned a B.A. in English and M.A. in Art History at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). She also holds a Certificate in Appraisal Studies in Fine and Decorative Arts from New York University.
I challenged her with a series of impromptu questions to ascertain better the fundamental approach to fine art appraisals, and to understand why the arts market in Charleston is a subtle rising tide.
BCH: Rebekah, what makes you tick academically? And what is your primary art focus?
Jacob: Having spent most of my life in the South, I am by default more passionate and knowledgeable about material related to my region. I studied many significant Southern authors who juxtaposed their text with extraordinary pictures. My favorite photojournalists were Eudora Welty, Walker Evans and Doris Ulman.
Being fascinated by “motion makers” over time, I developed a calling towards civil rights photography and Cuban revolutionary photography –– timeless images that document those who socially change the world
I grew up along the Mississippi Delta and then attended Ole Miss, so to me civil rights imagery was ubiquitous. In my early 20s, I travelled and developed a skill set for Cuban photography alongside an early mentor, Milly Moorhead. She was the proprietor of Southside Gallery where I worked during graduate school.
Ahead of the trend, Milly had begun collecting and brokering Cuban photography extensively. She handled the works of “the greats”: Osvaldo Salas, his son Roberto Salas, and Alberto Korda who captured the famous Che Guevara bust. I mean, wow!
So in 2007 I organized my own Cuban photography show here in Charleston, with Milly’s assistance. Thanks to the Charleston Mercury’s coverage I nearly sold out. I continue to spend a great amount of time and energy seeking and appraising and brokering Cuban photography and artwork –– but only if I can meet the artist or agent personally, and ideally travel to where they worked originally.
BCH: Why do art appraisals matter so much?
Jacob: First, there is no independent monograph on decoding an artwork’s value. Secondly, fine art can be either an appreciating asset or a diminishing commodity. On average, high-quality artwork should be appraised every 3-5 years.
Primarily, art is formally appraised to document its accurate valuation for insurance purposes. Potential sales or acquisitions, estate planning, or donations and tax-write off purposes are close-second motivations for art appraisals. Depending on where the artwork is situated –– in someone’s home, office, attic, even in storage, the first step is for me to view the artwork in person and begin the process.
BCH: How do art owners know if they possess a highly valued gem?
Jacob: One recent example of “artwork luck” is the viral news story about a newly discovered landscape, allegedly painted by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. A Baltimore-born woman purchased the artwork at a West Virginia flea market for $7, its true value unbeknownst to the seller, of course.
This lost Renoir is presumed to fetch from $75,000 to $100,000 at auction, according to Anne Norton Cramer, the fine-arts specialist for Potomac Company, the Alexandria, Virginia auction house overseeing the sale.
One hyped-up, televised form of attic and garage sale finds is The Antique Road Show, whereby rural family heirlooms may be gems or junk. My core message is that to know what your art is worth, owners must set aside their emotions or passions and accept the truthful appraisal range.
BCH: What affects the artwork’s value, and what are you looking for in determining its range?
Jacob: To own highly-valued gems, one must seek them out carefully based a 7-point framework of key factors. 1) Artist, 2) medium, 3) provenance, 4) size, 5) rarity, 6) condition, and 7) frame. I can’t give away all my secrets freely, but RJG’s painstaking process documents each key factor in a final appraisal.
BCH: What about our regional art markets? Have you seen any noticeable shifts in value?
Jacob: I’m wildly excited that Charleston has accelerated its contem- porary art scene, progressing way beyond just “Rainbow Row tourist art.” At the helm of this shift are key local institutions such as The Halsey Institute, the Gibbes Museum, and Redux. They are each exhibiting more contemporary art on diverse mediums, and ultimately attracting a plethora of worldly viewers and buyers to Charleston.
BCH: How has recent history or current political affairs impacted local artwork valuations?
Jacob: Since Obama’s election in 2008, there has been a resurgence of investment into civil rights photography. And so Southern photography is on fire right now, mainly due to its human candor and setting authenticity.
Further, as second homeowners semi-relocate to Charleston from “Anywhere, USA,” these diverse art patrons are deeply interested in acquiring fine photography or paintings or custom furniture that relate to and evoke the Southern region, authentically.”Young photography stars such as Ben Gately Williams, from Indiana, and Eliot Dudick from “some sheep farm in the middle of Pennsylvania,” not only live here in Charleston now –– both of these men have been voted into the “Top 100 Superstars of the American South” by Oxford American.Charleston media has always been very kind to the arts, local artists, and all forms of artwork, and so the “provenance” of regional work over the last 50 to 100 years has greatly appreciated in value.
BCH: What types of appraisal cases can you discuss, anonymously of course?
Jacob: Yes, for privacy reasons, I can only speak generally. I have appraised many collections and individual pieces, and there have been some very interesting outcomes. One client’s spouse had purchased a group of paintings from a “starving artist from the South” well over 50 years ago. His widow had us digging through the attic, under the beds, in drawers and closets, ultimately amassing 30 or so paintings valued between $285,000 and $315,000. She had considered taking them to Goodwill before our conversation and meeting.
Of course art is susceptible to fashion, so there have been clients who began collecting photography more than 30 years ago when only a few dealers, curators, and collectors were actually paying attention to the medium. Today, their photography collection is now worth millions.
On the other hand, sometimes clients are mislead and purchase artwork hastily via eBay, illegitimate dealers, or otherwise. One couple came to me having paid an astonishing amount for an Andy Warhol. Turns out, due to forgery, the piece is worth nickels, maybe dimes. The lesson is that it is important to be thorough, endure the short appraisal process, and document the details before assuming value or rendering a decision –– on either side of any artwork transaction.
BCH: So what’s next for Rebekah Jacob Gallery?
Jacob: Well, we’ve thankfully moved from a tiny 169 King Street space to a giant 502 Upper King Street space during the last six months. I’m thankful to Chris and Patrick Price at Prime South for solving our rental need so quickly. Because RJG has so much more wall and floor space now, we are able to co-host more art exhibitions each month, engage bigger lectures, and allow larger private events in the evenings.
The gallery’s three-part business strategy during this past summer was to double our physical inventory and insurance by bringing in more rare and highly-valued collections, triple our private and VIP events schedule, and engage multi-city mobility transacting, acquiring, appraising, or lecturing both in and beyond Charleston.
Key cities have been New Orleans, Miami, Washington, D.C. and Chicago. RJG will be participating in more national and international art fairs next year, including co-hosting an exclusive Karales show in the spring of 2013. Now that Charleston has proven to be such a national hub for fine arts and photography, I’m excited to keep moving forward.
Baron Hanson (and Rebekah Jacob) for the Charleston Mercury, October 2012.