Will That Monet Fade Away?

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Culver City art conservation specialist Emily MacDonald-Korth, 36, has a keen eye for detecting deterioration – and the potential for it – in paintings and other art works. But collectors who drop millions on a piece don’t always consider the degradation that can happen over time.

Sensing a business opportunity, MacDonald-Korth teamed up with her investment banker father, James Korth, to come up with a solution. The duo created a rating system called the Art Preservation Index, or APIX, which is meant to communicate to art collectors the risks associated with investing in a particular piece of art.

“We realized that, just like ratings for bonds, we could do the same thing for art,” she said.

Meant primarily to analyze modern and contemporary art pieces, APIX uses a letter grading system that investors are already familiar with – AAA, AA or A, for example – to indicate a work’s stability over time. A basic rating report for a single art work, including a summary of the rationale used to come up with it, costs $1,975. Additional services, such as high-resolution photo documentation, scientific analysis and preservation recommendations come at an additional charge.

MacDonald-Korth, who filed a patent application for the index in July, said she recognized adoption of the index won’t necessarily come easily.

“I think people who spend $50 million want to know this information, but perhaps the person brokering the deal wouldn’t want them to know,” she said. “It’s going to be hard to get everyone on board, but once they are, they’ll see that it’s actually a really helpful thing.”

– Bethany Firnhaber

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