Fine Art Appraisal Services

The Canada Council Art Bank (Art Bank) makes contemporary Canadian artwork available to the Canadian public through corporate art rental, exhibitions and outreach including loans to museums. With more than 17,000 artworks by over 3,000 artists, the Art Bank has the largest collection of contemporary Canadian art anywhere. It houses paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs and prints by emerging and established artists, including a significant number of artworks by Indigenous and racialized artists.

The Canada Council works with external professional fine art appraisers to establish the appraisal value (replacement cost) of artworks in the collection.

The intent of this solicitation is to establish a list of prequalified suppliers who can be assigned to deliver fine art appraisal services and related consultation as needed. Each artwork in the collection is assigned a replacement cost evaluation. The replacement cost is used for insurance purposes as well as to inform the rental fee for each artwork for the art rental program.

The first appraisal value of the artwork is the purchase price plus any cost to ship, frame or prepare the artwork for display. Between 1999 and 2001 the entire collection was reappraised. Periodic reappraisals on portions of the collection were carried out between 2001 and 2021:

• Approximately 400 works appraised in 2004
• Approximately 485 works appraised in 2007
• Approximately 3800 works appraised in 2010
• Approximately 540 works appraised in 2021

Going forward, the Canada Council intends on reappraising between 1500 and 2000 artworks annually (the final number will depend on the cost for these services and available budget). The artwork list will be divided regionally by artist as it is anticipated that appraisers will be most familiar with artists from a specific region. The Canada Council may work with several appraisers each year to appraise a portion of the collection depending on their specialization. The list would include the artist’s name, artwork title and creation year, medium, dimensions, edition number, a cursory comment as to the condition of the artwork, previous replacement value and date of last appraisal. The appraiser would also have access to digital images of the artworks.

Plan for appraisals 2024-2026:

Annex D contains the list of approximately 6000 artworks which have been assigned a priority of 1 to 3.

Priority 1: artworks that we expect to appraise in year 1 (budget permitting)
Priority 2: artworks that we expect to appraise in year 2 (budget permitting)
Priority 3: artworks that we expect to appraise in year 3 (budget permitting)

Appraisals are prioritized for artworks that are currently rented or in demand by clients of the art rental program.

Appraisals will be completed for all artworks by the same artist at one time (i.e.. if an artist has ten (10) works in the collection but only two (2) are rented, all ten (10) will be appraised) with the exception of artworks appraised since 2016. The Canada Council will not re-appraise those specific works until 2027 at the earliest.

Assuming standing offers are issued by the end of March 2024, call-ups will be issued, and appraisals will begin in April 2024, with the first set of appraisals completed and ready to be entered by the Canada Council into their database June 30, 2024. All priority 1 artworks to be completed between April and June 2024. The work on priority 2 artworks will start in April 2025 and will be expected for completion by June 2025. The work on priority 3 artworks will start in April 2026 and will be expected for completion by June 2026.

Deliverables for appraisals:

1. A cover document listing conditions and appraiser’s attestations.

2. A report including a brief synopsis of the current market for individual artworks and artists that have fluctuated most in value since previous appraisals. The report must also recommend which artists to appraise more frequently than every seven (7) years due to activity in the market.

3. Research and prepare an artwork listing with newly assigned values for each piece. This report should be provided in excel and pdf format. The excel format list should be submitted with the same rows and columns as delivered in the call-up.

Deliverables for Ad-hoc advice:

1. As and when requested: From time to time, the Project Authority shall request advice and consultation related to the Art Bank’s collection management practices and appraisal process. This may include advice on which artworks to reappraise in future reevaluations, advising whether to do fair market evaluations in some circumstances as well as other consulting.