Avondale Galleries & Art Restoration Services — Attraction in Oklahoma City

I went to Avondale Galleries to get several art pieces appraised. I walked in the door and waited patiently for my appointed time while Greg and his associate helped another customer. While waiting, I observed and overheard Greg telling a customer that his artwork "could be worth more" if the customer would "ignore his brother", get the family heirloom art "professionally cleaned and framed". When the customer stated that he wouldn't do anything without consulting his brother, Greg then responded that he "didn't need to tell him", and if he wanted to, he could even sell it without his brother's knowledge. It was clear that the customer offended with the Greg's crassness. Without response, the customer picked up and began rolling up the painting without acknowledging or responding to Greg. As the customer walked towards the door, Greg's assistant jumped up and offered to wrap the painting so that it would not get ruined due to the rain pouring down outside. After the customer left, Greg and I sat down to discuss my artwork. I needed an updated appraisal on several items to ensure that I had the appropriate insurance coverage and for future distribution to family members. Greg was barely courteous, and reeked of ill-informed pompousness. Throughout the appointment, Greg questioned my knowledge of art, insulted the previous ISA appraiser and scoffed at the previously appraised amount. Greg took the very first oil painting that I had, told his assistant the artist's name. He then rubbed his hands across the face of the acrylic paint and tried to "scrub-out" an area of white acrylic paint. After looking at the front side, he then flipped it over and broke off the anchor lashings, while simultaneously telling me that I needed to reframe the painting. Once he was done, his assistant looked up from the computer, and stated that it was worth $200. This didn't make any sense because the artist had done both an acrylic painting and a charcoal version of this image. Most recently the charcoal sketch had sold for over 10k. Throughout the verbal "appraisal" process, Greg would tell his assistant the name of the artist. His assistant would perform a Google search and then his assistant would provide the LOWEST value using either a different genre, period, or size to support the lower value. After 30 minutes of this, I was charged for a inaccurate and worthless appraisal that provided no details, descriptions, or reasoning for the downgraded values. According to Greg, it's because no "GenZers" are interested in owning artwork. My previous appraisals took days, with research, summarization of the condition, detailed descriptions of the artwork and associated images to support the appraised amount. This was a joke. What makes it worse is that an "expert" went out of his way to degrade the value of the artwork, the decisions of his customers, and even spoke ill of appraisal peers that have clearly demonstrated their high-level...

Absolutely loved the job Greg did to clean and restore my priceless, hundred year old family heirloom painting and it's unique frame. I admit I was scared to leave the painting with a stranger, but it had been degraded by exposure to smoke from a house fire and years of smoking in the home followed by neglect in a storage facility so a cleaning and restoration was a necessity. On top of the stellar job he did in repairing cracks and missing pieces of paint while refinishing the wooden frame, Greg made it look like what I think it looked like the day my parents received it as a wedding present from Earl Halliburton in 1949. Even better, he completed the work in time for us to enjoy it again in its rightful place in our home for Christmas. So glad I had it done locally instead of sending it to an entity in Denver....

The man wasn't "incredibly rude" to anyone; on the contrary, he simply stated what he would charge for an appraisal report.

It never ceases to amaze me how many people call personal property/fine art appraisers and expect them to work FOR FREE.

Simply preposterous.

The folks at Avondale have always treated both me and the clients I've sent their way with consummate professionalism and courtesy.

It just enrages some (clueless and low end) casual callers, though, that -- just like lawyers, physicians, plumbers, electricians, and other folks, both professional and skilled) appraisers do what they do for a living and (gasp!) actually charge money for their time, knowledge, overhead,...