Insurance appraisal?

[James K]

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.

[Ken-Hawaii]

Jim, I took a slightly different approach, but with no better results. As a former insurance broker with several licenses, I went back to all of my old companies & asked the same thing. In short, unless you can find an agent who is willing to sell you a rider based on your own guesstimate of a blade's value, I don't know of a way to get an appraisal for coverage. From the insurance industry's viewpoint, there aren't any "approved & certified" Nihonto appraisers. If you have a notarized receipt for what you paid for a blade, that can be used for a basis for coverage, but at least three major insurance companies (Aetna, TransAmerica, & Lincoln) completely refused to provide coverage to me, even though I used to be their sales rep.

 

I ended up buying a very secure vault - which is bolted to concrete - & storing my most valuable blades in that, along with a Dry-Rod to prevent humidity from rusting them. I have a katanadansu for the rest of my collection with a sophisticated alarm system for the house, & a few rather unpleasant surprises for anyone who happens to break in while I'm at home....

 

Ken

[James K]

That is disappointing to hear, although honestly I am less concerned about theft (my house is full of consumer electronics that can be turned into relatively quick and anonymous cash) than I am about fire damage. *sigh*

[b.hennick]

In the USA there is something called collectors insurance. Ken your club can I think form a group to get this inexpensive insurance. When I investigated insurance it certainly stood way above the rest. I covers you while transporting lbade to a show for example. All at reasonable rates too.

[Jamie]

Try calling an independent agent. My renters covers a few things that a usual policy will not.

In addition to nihonto, I have some outdoor gear that wouldn't be covered on a normal policy. So I spoke to my agent and had specific amounts for blades, and my outdoor gear. The policy was written and priced based on the figures I gave them because there is no other way to prove what they are worth. I didn't have receipts for any of it, but its all covered in full as is my gear for replacement value.

I hope this helps.

[Ken-Hawaii]

I hadn't thought about that approach, Barry, & I easily found a Web-site (http://www.collectinsure.com/) that appears to provide coverage for swords. Not at all inexpensive, but better than nothing if you can't find other insurance coverage. Thanks for the idea.

 

Ken

[b.hennick]

Hi Ken:

I was thinking this place:

http://antiqueandcollectible.com/collector_ins.html

I thought that the JSSUS might offer it to our members. The Board disagreed. I think that your club in Hawaii could offer it to members. The coverage is reasonable and broad. Happy New Year.

[steve0]

I asked the same question when i got my first nihonto and my broker asked me to get a appraisal off the dealer i purchased it from, which i did and they accepted that as fact.

 

nice and easy.

 

maybe its different in your country but that was good enough for QBE.

[Sam Elliott]

I have a rider for jewelry, watches and even pens. However I will now need to determine whether my insuarace company would in fact cover any of my modest collection under the standard guise or amended via rider.

 

Similar to Ken, I have a pretty sophisticated alarm along with a vault, but this was after the fact. Earlier this year we found ourselves the recipients of some unwanted attention. The only upside is they took a few hi dollar electronic items and did not notice the sword bags on a book shelf in my office or get to the uper floor. Something I should have done a long time ago is now in place after a bit of a wake up call.

 

I would be interested to hear from some of the dealers as to their experience with insuring blades and associted items.

 

Sam