The Appraisal Foundation, authorized by Congress as the source of appraisal standards and appraisal qualifications, promulgates the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). The USPAP are the generally accepted standards for professional appraisal practice in North America. USPAP contains standards for all types of appraisal services. Standards are included for real estate, personal property, business and mass appraisal.

 

The Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 recognizes USPAP as the generally accepted appraisal standards and requires USPAP compliance for appraisers in federally related transactions. State Appraiser Certification and Licensing Boards; federal, state, and local agencies, appraisal services; and appraisal trade associations require compliance with USPAP.

 

About the Appraisers

Elizabeth Clement
Richard Conti
Michelle DuBois
Steven Fusco
Leonard Polivy
Peter Sorlien

 

Elizabeth Clement, Elizabeth Clement & Associates, LLC

Accredited Senior Member of the American Society of Appraisers (ASA)

 

Elizabeth Clement & Associates, LLC, is a fine art, decorative art, and antiques appraisal and consulting firm with offices in Boston and New York City. Elizabeth Clement & Associates, LLC, provides independent, unbiased, and confidential valuations of fine art, antiques, and other collectable personal property. Service areas include insurance and damage loss; IRS charitable contribution; estate, market value, sale, collateral, divorce, and liquidation purposes.

 

Ms. Clement has valued collections for The Chubb Group of Insurance Companies; One Beacon; Marsh USA; Fireman’s Fund; Lloyd’s of London; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA; Sterling and Francis Clark Art Institute, Williamston, MA; The Preservation Society of Newport, Newport, RI; J. Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, NY;  various artists’ estates, private collections, family offices, and law firms; FBI Art Fraud Theft Division; Secret Service; and private wealth management firms throughout the United States and abroad. 

 

Past president of the Boston Chapter of the American Society of Appraisers, Ms. Clement currently serves on the Executive Committee. Ms. Clement was a contributing author to Life is Short, Art is Long – Maximizing Estate Planning Strategies for Collectors of Art, Antiques, and Collectibles published in 2007. She has lectured extensively to various insurance companies, brokers and agents, museums and galleries, art collectors, associations, foundations, and private collectors about fine and decorative art appraising, collections management, conservation, the art market, and fine arts insurance in this country, Europe, and South America.

 

Elizabeth Clement & Associates, LLC | 6 Winthrop | Danvers, MA 01923 | 978-774-5910

 

 

Richard Conti, Conti Appraisal Service

Accredited Senior Member of the American Society of Appraisers (ASA)

 

Conti Appraisal Service is one of New England's premier personal property appraisal firms, serving New England attorneys general, bankruptcy court-appointed receivers, lawyers, adjusters, several of our nation's top banks, and the public, with accredited appraisal reports. Also accredited by the National Auctioneers Association and The National Association of Appraisers, Mr. Conti is the president of the Boston Chapter of the American Society of Appraisers, in which he is an Accredited Senior Appraiser.

 

Mr. Conti is also an auctioneer, combining the strengths gained in the appraisal and broker fields to conduct real estate auctions at foreclosure, and he is approaching $3 million raised in charity auctions for non-profit organizations. As an associate broker at Conti Real Estate, Mr. Conti assists buyers and sellers in residential and commercial transactions, specializing in superior communication with clients on the changes in the marketplace.

 

Conti Appraisal Service | 272 County Street | Attleboro MA 02703 | 508-223-3333

 

 

Michelle DuBois, Winston Art Group

Accredited Member of the American Society of Appraisers (ASA)

 

Michelle DuBois is the associate director for the New England region of the Winston Art Group, a national full service appraisal and advisory firm serving the trust and estate community, wealth management firms, the insurance industry, museums, and private clients on all aspects of the international art market at all financial levels. With offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Boston, Winston Art Group is the largest independent art appraisal and advisory firm in the U.S., with expertise in all areas of fine and decorative art and, additionally, fine wine, vintage vehicles, and more.

 

Ms. DuBois has a Ph.D. in art history from Boston University and specializes in American art from the Colonial period to the present. She has more than 20 years of experience working in various venues in the art world, including gallery, museum, and academic settings. She lectures widely on a variety of art history topics and has spoken at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in addition to institutions and firms in such cities as Seattle, Boston, Providence, and Newport. She is the author of numerous publications, most notably co-author of Jacob Lawrence: Paintings, Drawings, and Murals (1935-1999): A Catalogue Raisonné and the monograph, Over the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence, recipient of the George Wittenborn Award for Excellence in Art Publications. She is currently also adjunct faculty at the Rhode Island School of Design Appraisal Studies Program and teaches various topics in art history and the art market.

 

Winston Art Group | 225 Franklin Street, 26th Floor | Boston, MA 02110 | 617-331-2476

 

 

Steven Fusco, Estates Unlimited, Inc.
(Sponsor of the WSBE Antiques Discovery & Appraisal Show)

Steve Fusco and his colleagues at Estates Unlimited, Inc., have more than 30 years combined experience in the antiques and estate liquidation trade. They are licensed, bonded and insured Auctioneers in the state of Rhode Island.

 

A second-generation Rhode Island family business, Estates Unlimited, Inc., offers appraisal services for the purpose of estate tax, insurance, inheritance, family division, gift tax, and resale. Appraisals are performed applying Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). Bringing together education and experience, the professionals at Estates Unlimited have broad knowledge of property valuation and current trends, with particular expertise in antique furniture, fine art, 20th century decorative arts, mid century moderne, glass, porcelain, pottery, and vast collections. Co-founders of the Rhode Island Auctioneers Association, Steven Fusco and Estates Unlimited are active members of the National Auctioneers Association, Greater Cranston Chamber of Commerce, and appraiser working under the USPAP.

 

Estates Unlimited, Inc. | 63 Fourth Avenue | Cranston, RI 02910 | 401-781-1181

 

 

Leonard R. Polivy, Gordon Brothers Group

Leonard R. Polivy brings more than two decades of hands-on experience in the jewelry business to Gordon Brothers Group, where he works on a variety of retail disposition and appraisal projects. He was instrumental in one of Gordon Brothers Group's largest jewelry disposition sales which included six different name plates across 27 states.

 

Mr. Polivy began his jewelry career with Gordon Brothers Group in the mid-1980s and went on to become president and owner of a wholesale diamond company. He has also held other management positions within the jewelry sector before returning to Gordon Brothers Group in 2009. Mr. Polivy is a member of the Jewelers Board of Trade, American Gemological Society, and Jewelers Vigilance Committee, and is also an associate member of ASA. He attended the University of Miami where he studied business administration.

 

Gordon Brothers Group | 101 Huntington Ave, 10th Floor | Boston MA, 02199 | 617-422-6516

 

 

Peter Sorlien, Accredited Appraisers

Accredited Senior Member of the American Society of Appraisers (ASA)

 

Accredited Appraisers provides objective, thorough and well-supported appraisals of art and antiques, but also has appraised objects of unusual size or historical significance, such as Dean Cornwell's 160 foot mural for New England Telephone (for insurance), a ten times life size statue of Sam Houston (for donation), and Jacques Cousteau's ship Calypso (for litigation). Large collections appraised include those of John Biddle (yachting films), Hercules Powder (illustration art), Little Brown (illustration art), the Town of Rockport (fine art), State Street Bank (historic lithographs, maps and antiques) and the Sisters of Providence (sculpture and stained glass). Clients have included most of the nation's major insurance and moving companies, and donors to Boston's Museum of Fine Art, USS Constitution Museum, Mariners Museum, Mystic Seaport Museum, Peabody Essex Museum, and the White House.

 

Peter Sorlien is celebrating 25 years as a professional appraiser. To avoid conflict of interest, he does not buy or sell, but often has been the advisor on purchase and sale of art and antiques, and disposition of estates.

 

Mr. Sorlien was one of the four appraisers who wrote the American Society of Appraiser's personal property courses. He also wrote chapters in both ASA textbooks about appraisal of personal property. He served five years on ASA's International Personal Property Committee, and five years as ASA's Education Chairman for Personal Property.

 

Accredited Appraisers | 17 ½ State Street | Marblehead MA, 01945 | 781-631-5956