APPRAISER: What a wonderful Erté piece you have.

GUEST: Thank you-- I think so.

I've had it a long time.

APPRAISER: Now, you can tell me.

Were you a model for this great piece?

You... GUEST: Of course!

(both laugh) APPRAISER: No, it's really grand-- what's the history of the, of your ownership of the piece?

GUEST: I bought it in London from Charles Spencer... APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

GUEST: ...who is an authority on Erté.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

GUEST: And I paid, uh, $10,000 for it.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh.

GUEST: Which was a lot.

APPRAISER: Yes, it was-- when did you purchase the piece?

GUEST: Um, 1985.

APPRAISER: Uh-huh-- all right, well, I'll tell you something about the, the background of the piece.

You know, Erté was a great Russian émigré... GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...who spent a great deal of his very theatrical life in, in Paris... GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...painting the girls of the Follies and doing great costume designs.

Uh, this is a wonderful example of an earlier Erté piece that, that we have.

And it's also in wonderful condition.

Have you kept it safely?

GUEST: (stammers) Yes, acid-free paper-- I've done the works.

APPRAISER: Okay.

GUEST: Yes, I really have.

APPRAISER: No, it's a, it's a very nice example of his work, with, with a great palette of the yellow and the orange and, and that, that bright blue.

We also have a nice example of his signature in graphite on, on the lower right.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Uh, one of the issues with valuing Ertés now, uh, is the fact of his recent demise.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And in many cases, when an artist dies, the, the market is, is necessarily stopped.

Uh, an issue that Erté had, and Dalí, and several other artists was that they became very prolific towards the end of their lives... GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...and made many, many pieces.

And with Erté, that was true, especially with prints and multiples.

GUEST: Yes, yes.

APPRAISER: And because of that, the market has been a little contaminated, a little overblown.

So in terms of a value of this piece, while you paid $10,000 for it, you know, ten or 12 years ago, because of this unsettling of the market with his death and with the number of pieces that are out there, it really hasn't developed as much as one might think it has.

GUEST: I see.

APPRAISER: So in terms of resale, I would be thinking of it closer to $10,000 to $15,000.

Somewhere closer GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: to where you paid for it than, than beyond that.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: But... GUEST: Will it ever go up again, do you think?

APPRAISER: Yes, it's really a matter of the market settling out.

The earlier pieces from the '30s, '40s, and '50s are the ones that you really appreciate.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And what you have is a great example of this... GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: ...uh, to enjoy.

Thanks so much for coming.

GUEST: Thank you very much.