February 12, 2010

Appraising for the Bic Corporation.

In 2005, Wachovia Bank in New York City contacted me to assist the Norwood Corporation in valuing a large illustrative art collection they inherited with the purchase of a group of small printing companies. After speaking with the new curator and conservator hired to manage the artwork, I learned they had documented 3,000 pieces, and were still counting. But the real surprise was the hundreds of works of illustrative art covering the history of more than 100 years of publishing – catalogs, magazines, advertisement, religious publications, calendars and more.

Some of the older works included art from the Chicago Worlds Fair and old glass negatives. There were patriotic paintings with boy scouts and flags. There were holiday paintings of young girls and boys holding pumpkins, or sitting in front of Christmas trees. There was the original Warner Sallman’s portrait of Jesus that became a fixture in thousands of churches and homes across the country. Paintings of pinup girls and laughing babies, and of national monuments. But the most interesting was the Marilyn Monroe color separations used as the first centerfold for Playboy magazine in 1969.

Although Playboy launched in 1953, it did not publish nude photographs until 1969. Hugh Hefner purchased the rights to run the Marilyn Monroe photograph originally created years earlier for a calendar that one of the printing companies purchased by Norwood had published. The original 26 color separations used for printing the calendar were haphazardly packed away and forgotten until their discovery by Norwood’s curator.

Norwood Corporation was in financial turmoil. CEOs came and went. Each time there was a new person in charge, I was asked to present my findings about the collection. In 2009, the Bic Corporation purchased Norwood. After reviewing the illustrative art collection, Bic decided to dispose of the property and began discussing options with appraisers, auction houses, dealers and curators. I too was asked to submit a plan of action for disbursement of the art collection.

This collection is unique, as corporate art collections go. The art was commissioned by the printing houses for reproduction purposes, and was not considered a fine-art asset until recently. Records show that illustration art has a place in the art marketplace. None of the artwork in the collection has ever been for sale, although similar works by some of the artists have been sold. It remains to be seen how this will all play out in the end. Of course, I wonder what will happen with the Marilyn Monroe pieces.