Sculpture valuation
What a sculpture is likely to make, and whether a cast is a lifetime one. Valued from photographs, at no charge.
Sculpture is the category where the same design can exist as a dozen legitimate objects of very different value, and where the difference is settled by marks a few millimetres across. A bronze cast during the artist's lifetime and one cast from the same model after their death are both genuine and are not remotely the same proposition.
What moves the value
Lifetime or posthumous cast
The first question asked of any bronze. Lifetime casts, casts made by an estate under authorisation, and later casts made outside that authority form a descending order, and the gaps between them are wide. Foundry records, the numbering and the finish of the surface are how the question gets answered.
Cast number, edition and foundry marks
The number stamped into the base and the foundry's own mark beside it identify which cast this is and who made it. Some editions run to a handful and some to several hundred; some include a separate sequence of artist's copies. These marks are small, often in an awkward place under the base, and they are the difference between a valuation and a guess.
Patina and surface
Patina is part of the work rather than a finish applied to it, and an original patina in good order is worth protecting. Repatination, polishing, outdoor weathering and cleaning with anything abrasive all reduce what a bronze will make, and unlike a dirty painting, the damage cannot be undone.
Material and construction
Bronze, marble, resin, fibreglass, painted wood and the mixed-media constructions of the last fifty years each carry their own condition questions and their own buyers. In contemporary work especially, the material is often the thing most likely to have deteriorated, and the artist's original intention about how it should look is a live question rather than a settled one.
What to photograph
The piece from several sides, and then the base — underneath it if you can manage it safely. The cast number and foundry mark close enough to read, any signature, and the surface in daylight so the patina reads as it actually is. Approximate height and weight are worth more here than in any other category.
What it costs
Nothing, and there is no obligation to sell afterwards. Most of what we are asked to look at we will never sell — people want to know what they have, and that is a perfectly good reason to ask. If a work is not worth the cost of handling it properly, we will say so at the photograph stage, before anyone has spent anything.
How a valuation is arrived at sets out the method across every medium, and where to sell paintings in the UK compares the routes once you know what you have. When you are ready, send the photographs.