Artwork And Your Estate Plan
If you need a fix of human drama, you can do worse than reading Arabic biographical dictionaries from the Middle Ages, such as Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani’s Book of Songs, which says as much about singers and the poets who wrote their lyrics as it does the songs themselves, or al-Khatib al-Baghdadi’s History of Baghdad. Celebrity beefs and petty interpersonal feuds have been around since long before social media, reality television, or even tabloid journalism. Once you get past the juiciest gossip about the interpersonal dramas in which the singers, poets, and scholars of the Abbasid caliphate embroiled themselves, you find out that the people who compiled their biographies were primarily interested in the subjects’ artistic and intellectual careers. Which other poets did the poet know? Which patrons financially supported him and gave him rewards for his poems? Who were his teachers and his students who went on to become famous in their own right? You can read all of this and find out virtually nothing about the poet’s family. You will not know the names of his siblings, mother, wife, or children; the biographical dictionary will only mention the poet’s ancestors if they were also famous. The biographical dictionaries usually care more about a poet’s artistic lineage than about his family lineage. For help thinking about your estate plan in terms of your own artistic lineage, contact a Tampa estate planning lawyer.
Generational Wealth and Your Artistic Lineage Do Not Have to Match Up Exactly
You are old enough, and you have invested enough time and money into the visual arts, to know that the arts have value in themselves. You do not need an estate planning lawyer to tell you this. It is time to face reality, though, that your children probably do not want to inherit the paintings and sculptures that you have inherited over the years, or even the ones that you inherited. To them, the artwork is only valuable because of its resale value, and the hassle of storing it or reselling it could exceed its value.
As with heirloom dinner plates or baseball cards, your children would probably rather have money than the stuff you lovingly collected. Therefore, the best thing you can do now is to have your artwork appraised. There is probably someone out there who wants the artwork you have collected, though. It might be a museum, a friend of yours, or even descendants of the artists. It might even be an art dealer who plans to resell the artwork. Finding a loving home for the artwork you have collected can be a fulfilling retirement project, and you might even meet some like-minded friends along the way. At the end of the process, your estate will have more money that your descendants can inherit.
Contact David Toback About Ensuring That Your Artistic Passions Outlive You
A Central Florida estate planning lawyer can help you strategize about what to do with your artwork collection in your estate plan. Contact David Toback in Tampa, Florida to set up a consultation.
Source:
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