Damien Hirst, Hymn, 1999-2005
painted bronze, 234.4 by 131.5 by 81 inches
Victor Wiener Associates (VWA) is a New York-based art consultancy and appraisal company working internationally on valuation matters pertaining to insurance, tax, equitable distribution, and collateralized transactions, among others. We also advise clients for the purchase and sale of works of art.
We provide expert witness testimony in court when the value of works of art is in issue, and have done so for several of the highest-profile and highest-stakes art cases in recent history.
Our experts are experienced in a wide range of fine and decorative arts, with specialist knowledge in areas including modern and contemporary, Old Masters, jewelry, photography, and audio-visual related material. We have extensive experience valuing large volumes of property and, when appropriate, calculating blockage discounts.
Our client base includes agencies of the governments of the United States and Canada, museums, private collectors, corporations, legal advisers, insurance companies, and financial institutions, primarily in North America and Europe.
All our appraisals conform to the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP), of the Appraisal Foundation in Washington, DC, the organization designated by the United States Congress to promote appraisal standards and qualifications for appraisers.
Pablo Picasso, Le Rêve, 1932, oil on canvas, 51 by 38 inches
(inspected by Victor Wiener)
Victor Wiener has worked on many of the highest-profile valuation matters in recent history. A trained art historian with degrees from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mr. Wiener worked for several auction houses including Sotheby’s and Christie’s, where he was director of the fine arts department in Rome, before serving as executive director of the Appraisers Association of America for 21 years.
He has been retained as an expert witness for matters including the valuation of the Detroit Institute of Arts in connection with the 2014 City of Detroit bankruptcy trial; the estates of Andy Warhol and Louise Nevelson; for litigation concerning two major works by Damien Hirst; and for the valuation of the damaged Picasso painting Le Rêve, which was at the time the most expensive painting ever sold ($139 million).
Mr. Wiener has also been qualified as a court expert in several cases involving art market practices in general, such as The Dorothy G. Bender Foundation, Inc. and John McEnroe v. Joseph P. Carroll and Joseph P. Carroll Limited, a case relating to the Ponzi scheme of Lawrence Salander; and United States v. Luke D. Brugnara, a criminal case involving alleged fraud in the sale of attributed de Kooning works on paper and a Degas sculpture among other works of art.
Mr. Wiener is co-editor of and a principal contributor to All About Appraising: The Definitive Appraisal Handbook (2003) and a co-author of An Underwriter’s Guide to the Valuation of Art, Antiques & Collectibles, published by the Inland Marine Underwriters Association (2001). He has written extensively on diverse valuation matters for the Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies, among other publications.
He has taught the appraisal of fine and decorative arts at NYU for over twenty years, with courses on the Legal and Ethical Responsibilities for Appraisers; IRS Rules and Regulations; and the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP). Mr. Wiener is one of the few instructors of USPAP with a specialty in personal property to be certified by the Appraisal Standards Board of the Appraisal Foundation.