FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE VALUATION OF ARTS AND ARTIFACTS IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

Arts and artifacts of various forms and sizes adorn different areas of property either on the wall, in the boxes or on the shelves. There are also evidences of uses of arts and artifacts for commerce. These and other uses of art and artifacts necessitated their valuation just like it is done for land and buildings. Estate surveyors and valuers are called upon based on the dictate of the Nigeria Law, their academic and professional trainings to advise various stakeholders who may have one thing or the other to do with arts and artifacts to help them in determining the value for such a use or uses. Despite this enabling criteria, Estate Valuers are confronted with challenges in identifying, separating and analyzing the factors that determine the values of arts and artifacts. This study examines the various factors that determine the value of arts and artifacts. A structured questionnaire was designed and administered on 17 Estate Surveying and Valuation firms in Abeokuta, Ogun state. The data gathered were analyzed using Mean Weighted Score (MWS) and frequency distribution. Common factors considered in the process of arts collection include the buyer's perception, condition and quality of the artwork among other factors. Findings revealed that most art buyers collect artifacts at certain huge amount primarily because of their own definition of the arts, outstanding aesthetics and thereby developing personal opinion of art value while the role of a professional property valuer is displaced from the process. This study therefore concluded that there should be a defined process of valuing artworks by property valuers which will include a guideline defining the factors to be considered in art and artifact valuation, thereby encouraging uniformity of value estimation of such personal property as it is for land and building valuations