Who Josh Levine Is (and Why It Matters)

Josh Levine spent over two decades as a licensed auctioneer in Arizona, specializing in fine art authentication and estate appraisal. As the founder of J. Levine Auction & Appraisal in Scottsdale, he built one of the largest auction houses in the Southwest, handling thousands of items a week and working through significant discoveries and complex authentication cases. That work gave him an insider's view of a normally closed world: how art is valued, how provenance is established or quietly buried, and how the market actually moves.

He didn't start in boardrooms. He started in the dust, crawling through attics, picking through hoarder houses, and cataloging the remnants of American lives. Twenty-five years in, he's seen exactly what families leave behind, and what it's actually worth. He's spotted a $40,000 Ed Mell wrapped in plastic and marked "TRASH." He's worked the forensic line between a genuine Jackson Pollock and a convincing imitation. And he's watched human psychology drive every sale, whether on an auction block or across a negotiation table.

In 2019, that chapter ended hard. The business went into bankruptcy, and Josh faced serious legal and professional consequences tied to the company's collapse. He took full responsibility, lost the business, his reputation, and the trust of people he cared about. It was the darkest period of his life. But you don't spend decades understanding the value of broken things without learning how to rebuild.

He didn't hide and he didn't leave the industry. He stripped everything back to the foundation and asked what he could still do better than almost anyone else. The answer was the same as it had always been: identify value, authenticate the real thing, and tell the story behind it. Today he works as a consultant, appraiser, and expert witness in complex valuation cases, and he speaks to audiences about hidden value, behavioral psychology in sales, and what it actually takes to survive failure and start over.

The authentication battle at the center of Jenifer's Pollock drew media attention and continues to generate interest from entertainment industry professionals. It also came with significant personal and professional costs, which become part of the book's honest examination of obsession and what it costs to stake everything on a single discovery.

Josh is the author of two books: Don't Throw That Away, which teaches everyday people how to stop throwing away their family's fortunes, and Jenifer's Pollock, the true story of the most intensive forensic art investigation of his career. He also builds specialized AI systems for the antiques and collectibles trade, helping dealers and appraisers work faster. His firsthand journey through the highs and lows of the authentication world gives readers unparalleled access to both contemporary auction market dynamics and the emotional reality of pursuing a single discovery at any cost.