MM ? - Selling original oil painting

[shortstax]

I inherited some art pieces from a relative. He and I weren't close, so I was surprised to inherit anything to be honest. I saved them for 5 years, but now realize that I might as well sell them since I won't be displaying them anywhere. They're cool, but not my style.

I have 3 original oil paintings with a certificate of authenticity attached to the back of each.

How do I go about trying to sell this? Contact a gallery? I'm assuming I need to get an appraisal first. How do I find an appraiser? I called our metropolitan art museum, but due to "ethical and legal" concerns, they couldn't refer me to any appraisers.

Any advice from fine-art-loving MMers? Have you done this in the past? What steps did you take?

TIA!

[Deleted]

What kinds of paintings are we talking about? My best friend is in the art world, and when I asked her a similar question she recommended that we send pictures to the relevant Sotheby's or Christie's department to get a rough idea of value, or look on the American Association of Appraisers website for a specialist in the area.

[panicked]

If you're not hurting for money, I might wait a bit until the economy recovers. You'd probably get a better return on them.

[shortstax]

I'll check into the association, V. Thanks! I'm not hurting for money, the the oil paintings are just sitting in a cedar chest right now. I figured I could research and sell to help fund DS's college fund.

[Myrrhine]

Even with a certificate of authenticity, oil paintings do not necessarily have a high value. But yours may!

A qualified appraiser can give you a confident sense of a painting's value, but may charge more than the paintings are worth to evaluate them. The association v recommended is a good place to find one though. American Society of Appraisers is another (www.appraisers.org ). If you have the artists' names, and it sounds like you do, you could try to find a library (maybe a local museum or university library) that has subscriptions to auction databases ( askart.com and artnet.com ) to get the roughest idea about the value range for the artist's work, as well as the names of auction houses that have carried the artist's works in the past. Both also sometimes list galleries that handle the artist's work too.

In my city there is a local auction house (not as highbrow as Sotheby's / Christie's) that will give an informal verbal appraisal if you are interested in selling. Maybe there is something similar near you?

Best of luck!

[shortstax]

Thanks Myrrhine, that info is so helpful to begin my research