I was watching the show tonight and one of the appraisers mentioned that when online searches fail, that’s when they can come to appraisers to get more information. How do the appraisers know or obtain this information? How are they able to estimate prices and give such detailed descriptions of the history of an object? This has always mystified me.
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They learn.
Anyway, what you see on TV is misleading. Everything is planned, scripted and staged. The items they show aren’t picked at random. They have a number of experts specializing in different topics. The item is picked if the expert can talk about it. The expert then goes back and performs some research. What you see is the result of personal knowledge and research focused on that item. To the audience that process behind the scenes is invisible. There are 10 times more items they aren’t showing because the info is missing.
As for the monetary appraisal – there are auction houses that publish everything. Experts follow these auctions as well as online bidding and learn about latest prices on the market. Art dealership and appraisal is a profession.
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