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Info Needed to Appraise or File

Claims on Damaged or Destroyed Art

The following is a partial list of what types of information are typically needed or helpful in appraisal and claims processes for damaged or destroyed art. If anyone has anything to add, please email me or comment and I'll get right on it:

* If you have an insurance policy, read it to see what's covered, how much it's covered for, and whether there are any limitations or conditions on that coverage. Your policy may include coverage for supplies, materials, and equipment. If supplies, materials, and equipment are covered, apply the recommendations and guidelines below to them as well as to your art.

* The more information you can assemble that directly relates to damaged or destroyed works of art and especially their values, the better. Helpful information can be pretty much anything and often depends on specifics of the artists and their careers.

* Images of the art itself. They can be of individual or multiple pieces, either on display or in storage at facilities that were damaged or destroyed.

* Images of damaged or destroyed artworks that were at any time on display at third-party locations but had been returned and were in your possession at the time of the loss.

* Images of storage areas, storage racks, flat file drawers, or other locations where multiple works were housed and visible, whether partially or fully visible. These are helpful in determining the extent of the loss, particularly in approximating the total number of works impacted.

* Incidental images-- no matter who took them or where you find them-- of homes, businesses, retail spaces, your studio, offices, lobbies, hallways, conference rooms, or anywhere else works of your art (that you still owned) happened to be on display at the time of the loss.

* Images can be from personal records, your website, social media posts, online stores, physical locations, or anywhere else that confirms their existence and location at the time of the loss.

* Any records, archives, or other documentation itemizing completed works of art that were damaged or destroyed. Helpful information typically includes images themselves, or when no images exist-- physical dimensions, written descriptions of compositions, titles, mediums, dates, etc.

* Specific information, as detailed as possible, about significant works of art that were damaged or destroyed. These might include works that won awards, were exhibited at notable shows or institutions, illustrated in features or videos or articles, acknowledged by critics, accepted into established juried shows, or anything else that separates them out from your overall body of work. Depending on their histories, they may have substantially more value than comparable works with no distinctions.

* Any images taken by anyone that happen to include artworks that were on display at damaged or destroyed third-party locations.

* Images or actual physical remains of damaged or destroyed works of art.

* Any records in any form documenting past sales of artworks similar to those damaged or destroyed. These include receipts (whether physical or digital), bank statements, payment platform confirmations, email correspondences, contracts, agreements, etc. These are helpful in determining, corroborating, or substantiating claimed replacement values.

* Images, information, or any other evidence of destroyed works that were priced and available for sale online, direct from you, or elsewhere at the time of the incident.

* Any circumstances where you posted, discussed, or otherwise provided price information for works of art that were either similar to destroyed works or were actually destroyed themselves.

* Any third party price information for works comparable to those destroyed including gallery or exhibition records, pieces being offered on primary or secondary market sites like Artsy or 1stDibs or eBay or Etsy, auction sales records, articles or interviews or videos containing or discussing prices, email correspondences with buyers or other interested parties, etc.

* Any tax records that include, document, or confirm income generated from art sales. These can be state, local, federal.

* Any other information that records, documents, or confirms income generated from art sales.

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(art by Roy De Forest)