Picarella Knows and Appraises Worldly Goods
By Judith Levin
Women’s News, February 1993, Volume 11 Number 7
Life has a way of connecting people with one another, creating changes in their lives not likely to have occurred except through “chance happenings.” So it was for Anita Bartlett-Picarella.
With strong business and administration experience, but no background in art, she met David Bartlett shortly after moving to Bronxville with her family in the mid-seventies. Bartlett was an appraiser of fine and decorative arts and had his own appraisal practice. He offered Picarella a job and an opportunity to learn the personal property appraisal business. Within a short period of time, her natural interest in, and affinity for, this unusual work emerged and blossomed.
“I worked for him, typing up his appraisals and, within a year, I was in the field with him on every job,” says Picarella. She was also responsible for market research and an extensive library. On her own time, she started going to exhibits and auctions. “I think I attended almost every exhibit at Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Doyle’s at the time…I went to estate sales because I wanted to see the drama of the auction room and the personages within the art community.” She took numerous courses in art history and sought out mentors-curators at Winterthur and Historic Hudson Valley.
Since meeting Bartlett 18 years ago, Picarella has earned some impressive credentials. Bartlett-Picarella is the first board-tested and certified appraiser of the Appraisers Association of America. Bartlett-Picarella also became an appraisal specialist in 18th and 19th century American furniture and fine arts.
Bartlett-Picarella has done appraisal consultations for the United States government and for prestigious museums, universities, historical societies, corporations and private clients in this country and abroad. She has lectured nationwide and also provides expert witness testimony in arbitration and litigation cases.
As a generalist, Bartlett-Picarella appraises fine and decorative arts for a variety of clients and purposes. In cases where an inheritance requires an appraisal of the entire contents of an estate, she gives expert opinion on the fair market value of the articles in it for equitable distribution or tax purposes. Sometimes her work involves objective appraisals for art collectors who need to document and insure their collections. She also works directly for insurance companies, adjusters or underwriters who have claims and need information about the value of damaged or stolen articles.
“The historical significance and the provenance (pedigree or background) of a piece are most important,” says Bartlett-Picarella. Its value can increase a thousand times if it is documented properly and can be shown to have belonged to a famous person. Its rarity, quality and current condition are all big considerations to the appraiser. “You much touch, feel, smell…” she insists. “I open up a chest of drawers and smell it,” she says. “Then I look to see if the wood is properly aged!”
Like most personal property appraisers, Bartlett-Picarella charges an hourly gee. A charge should never be based on a percentage of the value of an article, she says. “That can be construed as an appraiser trying to inflate appraisal figures in order to up the fee.” Ask questions about the appraiser’s background and credentials, clients served and available references, within the industries of insurance, banking and law. Find out about the appraiser’s professional affiliations, the length of time he or she has been in business and whether his or her appraisals have ever come into question by the IRS is also wise. The problem, according to Bartlett-Picarella, is that although there is certification, there is no such thing as licensing for personal property appraisers. Therefore, it is “Let the buyer beware!”
Judith Levin is a freelance writer in New City.
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