Letters to the Editor
-
Get Creative
Cary's advice is wonderful. It's important to take some time and figure out which of these are most important to you, and which ones you might be willing to let go.
If, after you have that chat with the appraiser, you discover that they're not worth the cost of storage, here are a few things you might consider doing:
1. Assign a place or two in your house where you won't mind keeping one of your mother's pieces on display. Select three or four pictures to display in this space, and rotate them seasonally (or occasionally). Put the others in storage -- since it's only a few, it shouldn't be hard to find a space in a closet or garage.
2. Consider the benefits of re-framing. I've got some older family art that became quite easy to live with once I added a matte and updated the frame to work better with my more contemporary decor.
3. Figure out which ones you might be willing to get rid of, and then get creative about where they go. First, ask your half-brothers and sisters to come look at them, and let them each choose one or two (or more, if they want them). They might be delighted. You never know.
4. Then, contact your mother's surviving friends (church? clubs? neighbors?) and ask if they'd like to come choose one. They'd probably be beyond delighted to have a memento of her.
5. If there are any left after all this, look for places in the community that might benefit from a nice painting. A lot of hospitals, care homes, and public clinics are dreary places; your mother's paintings might be just the thing to add some joy to a common room or hallway. Of course, you make the offer in a way that it's totally refuseable; but you might be surprised at how happy they'll be to have a well-made original to hang. If you have some idea of the valuation, you can take it as a tax deduction.
6. Likewise, a lot of community groups have charity auctions. This kind of thing makes a wonderful donation, and you can be sure the person who takes it home will love it.
As you can tell, I've had to find new homes for family art in the past. It can be done in a way that makes you feel really good about letting them go.
(Note to Cary and Salon's tech staff: This letter was written as nine separate paragraphs, separated as usual by a double-line break. However, the Preview function took out all the paragraph breaks, creating a single solid block of text. If it actually publishes this way, that's a bug, and it should be fixed. Thanks.)