Source: Artinsure has a network of specialist valuers who can let you know whether your beautiful object has purely sentimental value, or is really valuable in financial terms. (Image: Pixabay)
Artinsure is Hollard’s underwriting management agency specialising in insuring works of art and any valuables held by individuals, collectors, museums, galleries, art and antique dealers and exhibitions.
Rulers may be rather odd items to insure – unless you have the ultimate collection, like Massie’s client – but this story does show that just about anything can be collected, and just about any collection can be insured.
“It’s very difficult to tell whether a collection is valuable without specialist knowledge,” says Massie. “Anyone with a decent-sized collection or one or two pieces with an interesting history should look at insurance.”
Whether it’s an unbelievable ruler collection or a Han Solo action figure, in the original box with a blaster, if you have collector’s items like that, it’s best to get cover for them. Artinsure has a network of specialist valuers who can let you know whether your beautiful object has purely sentimental value, or is really valuable in financial terms.
“We’ve yet to have an enquiry we can’t find a specialist valuer for,” says Massie, who founded Artinsure with Hollard in 2007, and has more than 25 years of experience in the international art and insurance world.
This is a sector where, as happened in 2015, an Irma Stern painting (valuable in itself) was found being used as a kitchen pinboard. The artwork sold for R17.5 million.
That painting has a wonderful story behind it. It was originally put up for auction in the early 1960s to help pay for Nelson Mandela’s defence in the Treason Trial.
It’s the story that often makes the difference between a diamond engagement ring and the diamond engagement ring Jay Z gave Beyonce in 2007. There is the value of the materials, the diamond, its cut, size and quality and the precious metal in which it is set, and then there is the story, the provenance, says Massie.
The box, by the way, is very important. In fact, it could be the clincher, so keep the box, and all the papers, when you buy that Breitling watch. Just having the original box, especially if unopened, could mean the difference between an item and a collector’s item.
If you do have something that is valuable or has great provenance, it should be valued by a specialist and insured on an agreed value basis, says Massie. The box – to explain – can be an item’s instant provenance, for example, a piece of jewellery in an early Tiffany & Co box, or the Han Solo figure, unopened.
If the manufacturer is important to you, be sure to stipulate it in your insurance policy, says Massie. Most jewellery insurance does not stipulate a manufacturer, so you could get your diamond bracelet replaced with the same quality materials and good workmanship, but it might not be another Charles Greig.
Look out for pairs and sets. Make sure your insurer recognises the value of the set as a whole. Lose one part of a set and the financial impact could be far greater than the value of the individual part. The set can lose up to 50% of its value, just like that.
Some say millennials – the generation born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s – have ditched precious stones, especially diamonds, for reasons that range from ethical to financial. Others, for example, global diamond company De Beers, say this is not so. Whichever it is, it is not only obviously expensive items like diamond necklaces that are valuable and need insuring. It could be that copy of Jock of the Bushveld.
“The first print run had a plate with a dung beetle pushing the ball of dung with its front legs. The error was noticed and the subsequent print runs were corrected with the hind legs being used.. Very few of the ‘mistake’ first edition copies exist today and they are highly sought after and valuable.”
Website: www.artinsure.co.za
Telephone: 0861 111 096
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