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Artwork appraisals in Illinois for donations, estate tax, insurance, and divorce, prepared in accordance with USPAP and IRS requirements. AppraiseItNow appraises paintings, sculptures, prints, photography, and mixed media across Illinois, including Chicago, Springfield, and Rockford.
DEFENSIBLE, USPAP-COMPLIANT ARTWORK APPRAISAL REPORTS — QUALIFIED FOR THE IRS, ILLINOIS COURTS, LENDERS, INSURERS, AND MORE.
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Owner & CEO
Joe founded AppraiseItNow to make a certified, USPAP-compliant appraisal as simple to order as anything else online. A former Bain & Company strategy consultant, Joe leads the entire team and specializes in strategy, growth, and the firm's tech capabilities.
Personal Property Appraiser
ISA Accredited Member with 30 years in the trade, from running estate sales and an auction gallery to appraising luxury apparel, furniture, artwork, antiques, and business assets, primarily for IRS tax filings.
Personal Property Appraiser
ISA Accredited Member specializing in Asian art, with a Master's from SOAS and a Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art. Ashley chairs the ISA's Antiques, Furnishings, and Decorative Arts committee and appraises for charitable donation, insurance, and equitable distribution.
Client Success Manager
Manages each engagement from the first enquiry to the delivered report, and keeps you posted at every step along the way.
International Society of AppraisersAccredited Member
The Appraisal FoundationAuthorized by Congress as the source of appraisal standardsAppraiseItNow appraises paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photography, and mixed media in Illinois for charitable contributions, estate and gift tax returns, scheduled coverage with an insurer, and marital property divided in a dissolution.
What we value
A single canvas can be valued on its own. A collection is read piece by piece where the pieces carry real money and by category where they do not, so the report matches what the filing actually needs.
The standard
A deduction and an estate return are both read at fair market value. What an insurance schedule needs instead is the cost of putting an equivalent work back on the wall. That gets settled before any research begins.
Delivery
Photographs of the face, the reverse, the signature, and the labels carry most Illinois assignments. We come out when a work is large, fragile, or part of an installation.
Only a completed sale tells us what someone paid. A gallery asking price, an old figure from a previous owner, and a presale estimate are starting points for research and not evidence of value.
Comparables
A comparable has to match on more than the name. Date, medium, subject, size, and edition all move the figure, and a result that sits far off the pattern gets weighed rather than copied.
Condition and provenance
Relining, retouching, trimmed margins, fading, and gaps in the ownership record each pull a work down from its catalog figure. Purchase papers and exhibition history do the opposite.
The intended use is the first thing we settle, because it decides the standard, the valuation date, and how much documentation the report has to carry to be usable.
Charitable contributions
A noncash gift of art above the threshold the Internal Revenue Service sets needs a qualified appraisal attached to the return, with the method stated and the sales relied on named.
Estates and divorce
An estate reads values as of the day of death. A dissolution reads them as of the day the court or counsel sets. Either way the report says plainly which day it is looking at.
Two Illinois rules reach a collection before any sale does: the tax on a work bought elsewhere and brought home, and the arithmetic Illinois uses when a collection is not all in one state.
Use tax
6.25 percent
the Illinois rate on general merchandise bought somewhere else and used here
Illinois use tax runs at 6.25 percent of the purchase price of general merchandise, which is where a work of art bought outside Illinois for use in Illinois lands. The rate is the same whether the picture came from a dealer in another state, an out of state sale room, or abroad.
Credit is allowed for sales tax properly paid to another state, and where that state charged less than the Illinois rate the buyer pays Illinois the difference. The hammer price at a sale in New York or London is therefore not the whole cost of acquiring the work, and the figure a collector has in mind from the invoice is often not the figure the collection was really bought at.
Estate apportionment
Illinois assets over total
the ratio that sets the Illinois estate tax on a collection split across states
For both resident and nonresident decedents, the Illinois Attorney General directs that a preliminary tax amount be calculated as if all assets were located within Illinois. The apportioned tax is then found by multiplying that figure by the ratio of Illinois assets to total assets, and an estate with less than all of its assets in Illinois completes the Form 700 Addendum.
That arithmetic turns location into money. A collection divided between a Chicago apartment and a house in another state needs each work placed as well as priced, because the same canvas moves the Illinois number depending on which wall it hung on. The same guidance tells an estate that is not required to file federally that it may still elect alternate valuation under Internal Revenue Code section 2032 for Illinois purposes, which reads property not disposed of in the interval as of six months after the date of death, provided the Code's own requirements for the election are met.
Illinois Attorney General, Estate Tax Instruction Fact Sheet
What clients say we are known for
Across 100+ published AppraiseItNow reviews the picture is consistent: every one is from a client who paid us for an appraisal, and the three things they raise most often are that they would hire us again, how quickly we answer, and how much research is visible in the report.
The appraisal was done very well. Since he was a local artist here in Charleston, SC, they took the time to study and review Jim Booth’s art. His work has made him extremely famous, which can make an appraisal challenging, but they did a superb job and clearly explained how they arrived at the appraisal value. I highly recommend Appraise It Now and will use them again for all my artwork.
Artwork Appraisal for Insurance Coverage
AppraiseItNow did an excellent job appraising our unique art collection. Joe was always prompt and responsive, and he and his team delivered a thorough, well-supported appraisal in just a couple of weeks, even during the holiday season. I was genuinely impressed. Thank you for the great work!
Artwork Appraisal for Insurance Coverage
AppraiseItNow was amazing! My father passed with a large volume of artwork & I had no idea what it was worth. Their team was incredibly helpful and quick to respond with text and/or email to any questions as well as a status update along the way. Highly recommend!
Artwork Appraisal for Probate
I recently requested a retroactive appraisal for fine art from AppraiseItNow. I received excellent service from intake to delivery. The appraisal was delivered on time and the content of the appraisal absolutely met my expectations!
Artwork Appraisal
From the start they were very responsive, price competitive, and had a quick turn around time. Thank you so much to Joe who was very sweet in responding to my emails; I am looking forward to utilizing AppraiseItNow for many years to come.
Very thorough and professional — great communication and outstanding service. Highly impressed with their work!
Given the USPAP-compliant nature of AppraiseItNow’s appraisal reports, we prepare our deliverables for major legal, tax, and financial reporting purposes for individual and commercial clients.
Popular uses of our appraisal reports include:
Yes. Illinois taxes estates above a $4 million exemption at graduated rates reaching roughly 16 percent, and includible assets cover personal property such as artwork. Accurate date-of-death fair market value appraisals for a collection determine whether and how much state tax applies.
Auction record systems such as Artnet, Artprice, and AskART, plus auction house archives and subscription market analytics tools. These recorded transaction prices form the backbone of the sales comparison approach, which is the default method whenever an active secondary market exists for the artist or category.
No. Auction estimates are non-binding opinions designed partly to stimulate bidding, while a formal appraisal is a documented, standards-compliant opinion of value prepared for tax, estate, insurance, or legal use. When an Illinois court or the IRS is involved, an estimate is no substitute for a formal appraisal.
Yes. Under 755 ILCS 5/14-2 the representative may appraise goods and chattels or employ one or more competent, disinterested appraisers, and the court may separately appoint one, two, or three disinterested appraisers who take an oath, inspect the property, and report in writing, with their fees allowed as costs of administration. Contested collections frequently end up valued that way.
Within 60 days after letters of office issue. 755 ILCS 5/14-1 requires a verified inventory of the real and personal estate that has come to the representative’s knowledge, and a supplemental inventory within 60 days after later-discovered property is found. A piece located in storage or on loan after the first filing therefore needs its own supplement rather than a quiet addition.
