A Certified Member of the Appraisers Association of America (AAA) with a specialty in postwar, contemporary, and emerging art, David Shapiro appraises art for purposes including donations, estate and gift tax, collateral loans, and insurance – both for scheduling and claims. He also advises clients on purchases and sales of art, both privately and at auction.
Mr. Shapiro has worked on the appraisal of art in connection with trials including the valuation of the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) for the bankruptcy trial of the City of Detroit (2014); the valuation of contemporary art for the federal art fraud case, United States v. Luke D. Brugnara (2015); and the valuation of a large volume of damaged prints for the insurance case MunnWorks v. 645 Mac Realty (2016); among other more recent and ongoing cases. He has also been involved in several mediations and arbitrations in the claims process for damaged art.
Drawing on his professional experiences, Mr. Shapiro has lectured on art appraisal and the art market for institutions including ArtTable, DMINTI, The New Art Academy, the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA), Sotheby’s Institute of Art, and St. John's University. His article, “The Dynamics of Valuing Emerging Art and Artists” was published in the Digital Journal of Advanced Appraisal Practice (2019), issued by the International Society of Appraisers (ISA). He has also published on art fraud as co-author of the article “Appraising Art in the Realm of Fraud” in the Journal of Advanced Appraisal Studies (2016).
Mr. Shapiro has a background as an exhibiting artist, art historian, and editor. He served for several years as an editor of Pearson Education’s Art History textbooks, including Janson’s History of Art and Marilyn Stokstad and Michael Cothren’s Art History. Mr. Shapiro is the founding editor of the contemporary art publication Museo. He has published interviews with artists including Vanessa Beecroft, Shirin Neshat, and Jeff Wall; the latter was published in two books, Jeff Wall: Selected Essays and Interviews (Museum of Modern Art, 2007) and The Education of a Photographer (Allworth, 2006).