A corporate client of Appraisal Associates, which had its extensive art collection valued for insurance replacement value in the mid-1990s, asked for a reappraisal some ten years later. Made up of a varied selection of 20th-century Canadian paintings, prints, and drawings, including some by well-known artists with solid auction histories, the collection’s 1995 value reflected a period when the Canadian art market had been just beginning to reassert itself after several difficult years in the early part of the decade.
More than a decade later, the situation is completely different in the Canadian art market. Demonstrating its tenth straight year of increases, records are being broken with every auction season, and prices continue to rise. By the time the appraisal was finished, the paintings in the collection had increased in value anywhere from 25 per cent to as much as 300 per cent. Our corporate client is once again fully protected in the event of a loss and claim.
