I have a small collection of nihonto: a Bungo Takada Muneyuki wak, a Shiro Kanenaga wak, an Ichihara Nagamitsu katana, a Goto kozuka, and a very old (and sadly, in poor condition - Robert Benson tells me it cannot be polished) wak signed Masamune (I know, but the signature has the same patina as the rest of the tang and there is a mekugiana drilled thru part of the signature, so it's an old forgery).
I asked my insurance agent if I needed a rider for them to be covered, and he told me I needed an appraisal first before he could answer me.
I have tried for several years to get an appraisal done. I have contacted local auction houses and they either tell me they don't have the expertise, or they just don't return my calls/emails. I traveled to Atlanta to see a guy there who said he could do it, and he took a bunch of pictures (and thankfully refused advance payment) then stopped responding to my inquiries.
I even wasted a year dealing with Christie's and after being told to be patient and waiting thru one personnel change, finally got back a blow-off answer that they were all worth $1500 each and if I wanted a written appraisal I would have to ship all the items to their nihonto expert in London (they could have told me that a year ago and saved both of us a lot of time).
So, does anyone have any ideas on how I can go about getting an appraisal that my insurance company will accept? I live in the Nashville area.
Thanks in advance.
