I am officially a certified Chinese Fine Art appraiser through the Appraisers Association of America (AAA)! Based in New York City, AAA started in 1949 and has over 700 members - the highest level being accredited members and certified members. With over 100 different specializations, many of my colleagues are former curators, gallerists, and auction house specialists.
I started taking my courses this past January and my coursework included completing my compliancy with the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). This is a set of guidelines put forth by the Appraisal Foundation for appraisers and their clients to preserve public trust in professional appraisal practice. Basically it means that an appraiser (like me) has to follow attributes that include integrity, objectivity, knowledge and experience in their field.
To fulfill my requirements as a certified appraiser (as opposed to being an accredited member), I also had to write a 6 hour exam at the AAA's NYC office which pretty much asked me to write down everything I know about the Chinese art market from the past 5 years. It helps that I provide the Chinese Art market trend reports to Orientations Magazine every six months!
The completion of this long exam is what separates me from the accredited members, and I hope to complete exams in other Asian Art categories (i.e. Japanese Art and Himalayan Art) in the coming years. To the best of my knowledge, there are only two certified members in all of Canada, the other being a former colleague who is a certified fine art appraiser.
Having this certification will hopefully open up more opportunities for me throughout North America with estates, museums, and insurance companies. I also hope to lecture more on Chinese Art subjects.
I'll post more information about appraisal practices in the future and if you have have any questions, please send me an email!
Below is the 'scholarly owl' logo for the AAA:
