Mark Alexander has joined Daytona City Lifestyle as a new columnist and will be writing about the inner workings of the art world. He is a professional fine art appraiser, broker, and consultant in Palm Coast. Mark has undergraduate and graduate degrees in art from the University of Central Florida and Florida State University. He is a former university art gallery and art museum director.
Mark became a professional accredited fine art appraiser soon after presenting an original exhibition of artworks by John James Audubon at The Deland Museum of Art as the museum’s executive director. So many people had questions about their own Audubon collections that he decided to bring in a world-class Audubon art expert to give a lecture on collecting Audubon artwork.
The talk was followed up with a hands-on appraisal session with people from all over Florida bringing their Audubon prints for expert examination and valuation. One participant was amazed to find that what her elderly son had been telling her was true. Her 19th Century Havell hand-colored engraving of a pileated woodpecker was an authentic John James Audubon and worth $40,000. The print had been in her family since it was purchased in the 1930’s and had the old New York City newspaper backing from that era. After spending the afternoon working as the appraiser’s assistant Mark found his calling and became a professional fine art appraiser.
In 1999, he founded his own company Art Services 2000 Ltd. after training and qualifying as a fully Accredited Member of the International Society of Appraisers (ISA). The services he provided included fine art shipping and transport as well as consulting.
As a result of many of his fine art appraisal clients asking who they could trust when it came to selling their works of art, he became a professional fine art broker as well. As a museum director he had had experience dealing with the major international auction houses including Christie’s and Sotheby’s both in the United States and abroad. He has been navigating the ins and outs of the fine art marketplace for over 25 years placing works for sale at venues as far away as South Africa and Australia while selling pieces in London, Paris, and Amsterdam as well as the major New York auction houses. He has worked with some of the world’s foremost experts and scholars in the research and authentication of works of art.
His diligence, experience, and reputation resulted in his being recruited by the United States Department of Justice as an independent fine art appraisal contractor for the United States Marshals Services Department of Asset Forfeiture. He has worked on a variety of cases for the FBI, the DEA, the U.S. Postal Inspectors Service, the U.S. Marshals, and Homeland Security. Forfeited assets that he has appraised include original paintings by Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet, Andy Warhol, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. He has also appraised an original illustrated letter from the artist Vincent van Gogh and facilitated the authentication and valuation of the world’s most valuable movie poster for Fritz Lang's 1927 sci-fi masterpiece, Metropolis.
Over the years, he has appraised numerous other fine art and non-art items such as rare books, including a first edition of The Great Gatsby. He has also appraised important historical objects from the Civil War as well as highly rare and valuable collectible items including the 1954 Academy Award for Best Actor given to Marlon Brando for On the Waterfront.
Mark Alexander can be reached through www.artserve2000.com.