For owners, families and estates

Sell your Edgar Payne painting

Steven Stern Fine Arts buys, sells, consigns and advises on paintings by Edgar Payne. Here is what happens when you contact us, what we will ask for, and the ways a sale can be structured.

1. Start with photographs and a few details

You do not need an appraisal or any paperwork to begin. Clear photographs taken in daylight are usually enough for a first look:

• the front of the painting, straight on, with the frame in view;
• the back, including the stretcher or panel and any labels, stamps, stickers or handwriting;
• a close-up of the signature;
• the size of the painted surface (height × width), without the frame;
• anything you know about its provenance: who owned it, when and where it was bought, old receipts, exhibition labels or earlier appraisals.

Please don't clean, varnish, reframe or have the painting restored before we see it. Well-meant cleaning is one of the most common ways a Payne loses value.

2. A confidential evaluation

The gallery offers confidential evaluations to owners of paintings by major California and American artists. Every painting is judged on its own merits: authorship, period, subject, condition, provenance, exhibition history, published references and its importance within Payne's work. We may come back with questions, or ask for more photographs of a particular area.

3. Choose how to sell

Every painting and every owner is different, so we discuss the options with you directly:

• Direct purchase. The gallery buys the painting outright.
• Consignment. The gallery offers the painting to its collectors on your behalf.
• Private sale and advice. For important works and whole collections, we advise on timing and approach, including estates with several artists.

4. Viewing the painting

Steven Stern and his associates travel regularly to see paintings and collections and to meet owners. The gallery is based in Los Angeles and works with collectors, estates and institutions across the United States.

Edgar Payne seller inquiry

Tell us about your painting. Required fields are marked by your browser; everything else is optional.

Prefer to talk? Call (310) 570-5679 or email StevenSternFineArts@gmail.com.

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