Sedona is an art town. Tlaquepaque, the Gallery Row stretch of Highway 179, Uptown and the studios in the Village of Oak Creek support dozens of galleries, and the people who retire to the red rocks tend to arrive with collections and keep adding to them. That makes Sedona a place where a painting can have two very different values: what it would bring at auction, and what it would sell for on a Sedona gallery wall. I appraise for both.
In 2025 a Sedona client with four paintings, two attributed to 18th and 19th century European artists, needed exactly that: a market value appraisal they could use for insurance, estate and resale decisions, plus a separate Sedona retail price recommendation for each piece. Total market value came to $7,750, and they knew which paintings to keep, which to sell and where.
What Sedona collections tend to hold
Southwestern landscape paintings of the red rocks and the high desert, Western and Native American art bought in Sedona, Santa Fe and Scottsdale, contemporary work from local galleries, sculpture and bronzes, Native American jewelry and pottery, and the collections people carried in from California, the Midwest and the East: European and American paintings, prints, antiques and silver. Many Sedona homes also hold a few pieces bought at a gallery during a vacation decades ago, which may be worth more or far less than the receipt.
Market value versus Sedona retail
Here's the Sedona-specific problem. The auction market, which sets fair market value for estates, taxes and most sales, may value a regional painting modestly. A Sedona gallery, selling to visitors who want to take the red rocks home, may price the same painting much higher. Neither number is wrong; they answer different questions. My Sedona reports state fair market value with its comparables and, when you're weighing a local sale or you're a gallery pricing inventory, add retail pricing guidance for the Sedona market so you can see both numbers side by side.
For galleries and dealers
Sedona galleries take in estate pieces, consignments and trades, and sometimes need an independent opinion of market value or a defensible retail recommendation for a piece outside their usual artists. I provide written opinions a gallery can keep in the file and show a client, and I'm not a competitor: I don't buy or sell what I appraise.
Estates, insurance and donations in Sedona
Sedona estates often involve out-of-state heirs and a house full of art nobody local can value. I document the collection, provide date-of-death values for the attorney, and tell the family where each piece should go. For insurance, I prepare replacement value schedules; Sedona's fire risk makes current documentation worth having. For gifts to the Sedona Arts Center, museums or universities, I prepare qualified appraisals for IRS Form 8283.
How I serve Sedona
Sedona is about two hours north of my Phoenix base, and I make the drive for collections, estates and insurance schedules, and I can group Sedona and Verde Valley visits together. For one or two pieces, start with photographs through the form: front, back, signature and any labels, with measurements. Often that's enough for me to begin, and we can do the consultation by phone or video. I reply within one business day and quote the whole job up front, including any travel, before I start.
I also cover the Village of Oak Creek, Cottonwood, Cornville, Camp Verde and Jerome on the same basis.