Heritage Auctions

	Mark Prendergast Director of Trusts & Estates MPrendergast@HA.com 1-800-872-6467 x1632
Mark Prendergast earned his degree in Art History from Vanderbilt University and began his career in the arts working with a national dealer in private sales of 20th Century American Art. Joining Christie's in 1998 and advancing during a 10 year tenure to the position of Vice President, he was instrumental in bringing to market many important and prominent works of art, collections and estates. Based in the Heritage Houston office, he serves as Director of Trusts & Estates, providing assistance to fiduciary professionals in all aspects of appraising and liquidating their clients' tangible assets. From initial contact to final settlement, he strives to make the appraisal and auction process seamless and timely.

Heritage Auction Galleries is "only" the world's 3rd largest auction house, but we believe we are by far the safest choice when valuable estate property needs to be sold. Fiduciaries are invited to consider these important facts:

1. Heritage can auction all of the art and collectibles in your client's estate, unlike the two larger firms you probably deal with now, who typically sell the less expensive objects in bulk, or offload them to auctioneers catering primarily to dealers.
2. Approximately 75% of items in Heritage auctions sell to retail collectors, the highest percentage by far of all major auction houses.
3. Collectors rarely buy in bulk, but tend to buy exactly what they want and are willing to pay much more than dealers.
4. Unlike most auction houses, Heritage focuses most of its marketing directly to private collectors through direct mail and the Internet.
5. According to Compete.com (the Nielsen ratings equivalent for the Internet) Heritage's website receives over twice as much traffic as Sothebys.com and Christies.com combined.
6. Heritage auctions almost 300,000 individual lots per year, significantly more than any other major auction house. Every lot you consign, even objects that sell for well under a thousand dollars, will be individually offered and carefully described, with enlargeable 4-color online photographs.

Simply put, if you are liquidating a major estate and do not get a proposal from Heritage Auction Galleries, you are likely to cost your clients a significant amount of money.

Worldwide Internet presence translates into realizing the highest prices at auction for your consigned property. Heritage serves over 450,000 registered online bidder members and over 600,000 collectors on our mailing list. This means your material will be viewed by far more qualified bidders, multiples more, when consigned to Heritage.

Every day over 20,000 people visit our website. We have established HA.com as the leading online bidding platform of any full-service auction house. Heritage is here to help people both acquire wonderful objects, and, at the appropriate time of their choosing, assist them in selling via our global consignment platforms.

Free Newsletter

To receive with our compliments Heritage's Trusts & Estates Newsletter, which is designed to provide the T&E community with up-to-date news and commentary related to your mission and ours, e-mail your contact information to Estates@HA.com, call 1-800-872-6467, or fax to 214-443-8425.

Newsletter Articles:

• Appraisers' Wake Up Call
• Review: The Expert Versus the Object: Judging Fakes and False Attributions in the Visual Arts
• Turning Copper Into Gold
• Art & Taxes
• Congress Takes the Stuffing out of Taxidermy Charitable Donations
• The "Cultural Casualties" of 9/11 Suggest Need for Better Collections Management
• Replacing Mystery with Transparency & Trust
• Uncle Sam Wants His Art Back
• Better Estate Appraisals
• Fakes: The Best (or Worst) of 2007
• Know Thyself: Collector, Dealer or Investor
• Of Stained Glass and Pyramids: Copyright and Art
• Estate Tax Liability: The Fine Art of Determining Fair Market Value
• Appraising, an Individual or Team Effort
• Minority and Marketability Discounts for Fine Art Appraisals
• Changes in Charitable Donation Rules

Appraisals Now Available

With our superb team of experienced specialists, in fields ranging from Rare Currency to Modern Art, Historical Photography to Comic Books, we are pleased to offer a full service Appraisals Department for our Trust & Estates clients.

Trustees, executors and fiduciaries responsible for estate tangible property can now avail themselves of the best suite of estate services anywhere, including: authoritative estate appraisals, auction services and private treaty sales.

Please visit Heritage Appraisal Services or email Estates@HA.com.