Wedding Woes

Family momento could be a huge money maker

Dear Prudence, 
Years ago I was helping my family go through old boxes in our old childhood home. In one of the boxes were many old paintings, some that my parents had painted and some they had picked up over the years. I found a gorgeous pastel of a woman in this box. It turns out that my father himself received it as compensation for work he did many years ago. Upon further research, it turns out to be a fairly rare piece of art done by a famous artist and is worth a fairly decent amount of money. My siblings have since found out and want me to sell it and have us all split it. I don’t want to sell it! This is a rare piece of history. Short of having to buy a new kidney for one of my siblings, I don’t want us to sell this treasure. What should I do?

—Want It on the Wall

Re: Family momento could be a huge money maker

  • I need to know whether you officially own it, mrs.conn, or whether it's still community property?  If you own it, too damn bad for them.  If it hasn't officially been given to anyone, then if you can afford it, maybe you can buy them out of their shares?  They get the money, you get the art, everyone is happy.
  • If the siblings were going through things and as a group decided to get it appraised that's one thing, if not and she was the only one who wanted it at the time and no one else did, and she alone did the footwork after finding no one else wanted it, sucks to be them, make sure to select a petty and proper frame and have it authenticated/insured. 
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