'What's My Print Worth?'

Question: "I have a William Christenberry print of 5 Cents. I bought it years ago in D.C. at the Tartt Gallery. What is the best method to determine its value?"

Reply: The best method would be to sell it through an auction house that handles a lot of fine art photography and preferably a lot of Christenberry. Whatever you get for it is what it's worth.

Second best—check auction records for any recent sales of the same print. This is a good estimating method but doesn't take into account increasing or decreasing demand. Sometimes actual auction prices depart from such "comps" considerably.

Third best method, ask (or pay for) a competent photo dealer to perform an appraisal. You can find such dealers through AIPAD, the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (www.aipad.com). Again, as reports from actual auctions will make clear, an appraisal is an educated guess and is neither a limit nor a guarantee.

Worst method: arrange a private sale to or through a friend, local collector, local museum, or art or antiques dealer, and simply take whatever they see fit to offer you. While any given individual may be perfectly generous, in general these resources really don't have much incentive to pay you any reasonable facsimile of the going price, never mind top dollar.

_____________

Mike

Comments

[Ken Tanaka]

That's precisely the right answer, Mike, particularly with regard to a Bill Christenberry photo. His work, although "famous", will have a fairly narrow appeal. Select an auction house or gallery that already preys on that niche.

One other suggestion would be to donate the work to a museum that's looking to build its Christenberry collection. Depending on your estate and tax situation this could be a very smart move.

I don't mean to be ghoulish but...Whatever you choose to do I suggest you wait until Mr. Christenberry leaves the planet. The valuation of his work will likely rise significantly at that moment. Note, though, that I just saw him a few months ago and, "sadly", he seems very vibrant. (BTW, he's also one of the best storytellers I've met. Jump at the chance to hear him talk.)

So be patient as well as thoughtful.

[Hugh Crawford]

"competent photo dealer"
Back around 1980 my mother bought a pair of Irving Penn platinum prints from his "Small Trades" series - the street photographer and the bakers- from a dealer in San Francisco. The next day the dealer tried to buy them back for twice what she paid for them. It seems that he hadn't checked what they were selling for recently , and she had.