Guest Column: The Valuation Rollercoaster

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Dupplin is chairman of the art and private-client division of Hiscox, a London-based provider of specialist insurance.

I must confess to having a sneaking admiration for Jack Vettriano, a fellow Scot and a self-taught artist upon whom today’s art establishment loves to look down. I lie in an unfashionable camp, but am comforted by newspaper reports that Jack Nicholson and Madonna have actually bought works by him.

The Singing Butler is his iconic picture that was sold by Sotheby’s at Hopetoun House in Scotland in May 2004 for a record £744,800. The same picture had been sold in 1998 for £32,000.

Not surprisingly, following this very successful sale, a large number of Vettrianos came onto the market, and good prices were achieved at various auction rooms.

But then the Daily Record, a Scottish tabloid newspaper, revealed last October that Vettriano had used an illustrator’s guide to help him with the drawing of some of the figures that were in the picture—leading to accusations that he was nothing more than a plagiarist.

The debate raged for some days, and I found myself talking to Harry Dalmeny, the auctioneer at Sotheby’s who had sold the Singing Butler. I asked him whether the Daily Record claims were going to affect Vettriano values. Dalmeny is much too much of a diplomat to have given me any unequivocal answer, but reading between the lines, I believe the Daily Record article has certainly weakened the market somewhat for Vettriano’s work.

And so in the story of Vettriano we see the rollercoaster of art valuation. As an art insurer, I can only tell you that you should consider the proper valuation for your art regularly—because if you insure for the wrong amount, you may not be able to claim enough money following a loss to replace an object with something of equal moment.