Who Gets Dad's Old Anvil

Once both parents have died, the children have a big job ahead of them. It litterly can take years to wade through all the accumulated stuff. And the stuff might really be valuable (not just monetarily). The sentimental value of a certain item can help ease the lose of the loved one as family reminisces, or it can cause the dreaded family fight that keeps family members from talking to each other for years. An article written by Kelly Greene of the Wall Street Journal entitled, "The Pearls Are Mine!" gives some good suggestions for working through the mountain of stuff in an timely and friendly way.

Joke of the Week

Suzie--"Mamma, you know that vase you said had been handed down from generation to generation."
Mother--"Yes, my dear."
Suzie--"Well, this generation has just dropped it."

Speaking of Art

Last week, two 16th century paintings that hung in William Randolph Heart's castle were confiscated by the Nazis in 1935. Last week Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California State Parks Director Ruth Coleman handed them over on the second day of Passover.


The three works were acquired by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst for his 165-room, hilltop castle in 1935; the origins were unknown at the time.

The family struck a deal with the state of California several months ago, after San Simeon curators agreed the paintings were Oppenheimer holdings sold at a Judenauktion, a coerced auction of Jewish possessions.

The paintings were deeded to the State of California with the sale of Heart Castle.

Peter Bloch of Boynton Beach, Florida and Inge Blackshear of Buenos Aires accepted the oil paintings on behalf of their grandparents, Jakob and Rosa Oppenheimer. Inge died at Auschwitz and Jakob died in poverty in Nice France in 1941.

Schwarzenegger's whose father was a member of the Nazi Party, said that the return of the paintings had special meaning for him.

The returned paintings are "Portrait of Alvise Vendramin," attributed to the school of Jacopo Tintoretto, and "Portrait of a Bearded Gentleman," credited to the school of Giovanni Cariani.

“Is Art an Industry or a Luxury”
The Wall Street Journal
by Daniel Grant

Sens. Pete Domenici (R., N.M.) and Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) have co-sponsored legislation, endorsed by both Christie's and Sotheby's auction houses and the Art Dealers Association of America, to equalize the tax treatment of capital assets. This will be their third try. Why, so far, have they not persuaded their congressional colleagues, and why have two other bills affecting art collectors and museums run into similar resistance?

Grant says that that it is because it defies standard economic practice or public policy, or both. It makes sense only if one believes that art is just one more and equally important investment realm. The government wants people to invest in businesses or the housing market, entrepreneurship, places where the money is more productive.

Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution disagrees . . .

"Buying art shifts money from one set of hands to another and it doesn't discourage investment in factories or elsewhere. (And if it did, investing in houses would involve the same problem, I might add.) The recipient of the money, the art seller, can invest the money just as well as the spender might have. Or in other words, the transfer of the arts doesn't consume much in the way of real resources. Admittedly there is a second-order effect: higher prices diverts more labor energy into the arts, although for Old Masters this effect is very small. Or you might cite shipping and transfer costs for the art, noting that on that logic we should tax shopping carts at higher rates as well.

There is a good argument for the higher tax rate on art, namely that art yields otherwise non-taxable pleasures -- the pleasure of hanging it on your wall -- unlike say holding Chrysler stock. Or you might think taxing art is another way to hike the tax burden on the rich. But the cited argument just doesn't fly."

Taxing Art

The Artist-Museum Partnership Act, a bill introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D VT) would amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow taxpayers who create literary, musical, artistic, or scholarly compositions or similar property a fair market value tax deduction for contributions of such properties or the copyrights, or both, to certain tax-exempt organizations, if such properties are properly appraised (value determined at the time of contribution)and are donated no sooner than 18 months after their creation.


Another art-related Tax bill has sponsored by Pete Domenici R-NM and Charles Schumer D-NY would provide the same capital gains treatment for art and collectibles as for other investment property. Currently capital gains tax rate for art and collectibles is 28%, compared to 15% for other types of investments.