Iconic Collections
We have researched and appraised the most iconic music and film artifacts in culture and the biggest archives belonging to the world’s most influential musicians and filmmakers.
Case Studies
Iconic Musician’s Estate
In this game, we love a hoarder and this appraisal was a dream come true. When Dig was asked to carry out an Estate Tax appraisal for a deceased musician, we had no idea that they had kept all their stage costumes, lyrics, awards and memorabilia from the majority of their career. The collection totaled around 5,000 pieces.
None of the memorabilia was inventoried and archived and was stored in poor conditions so we worked with an archivist to help inventory the collection and moved everything to climate-controlled storage.
As the archivist processed all 5,000+ objects, we researched and appraised each and every item. Key to our process was developing a methodology that kept us consistent across the entire collection. The data nerd in us was happy and so was the Client.
Film Studio Archive
The Los Angeles wildfires of 2025 were a wake-up call for a lot of our clients who were worried about their collections. This prominent film studio asked us to do an Insurance Appraisal of their Archive which included costumes, props, models, original artworks, scripts and production materials, totaling around 2,500 pieces.
The Studio has an in-house team of archivists and a cloud-based inventory (music to our ears) so we could appraise the majority of the pieces from the online database, with an onsite visit at the beginning and end of the project to sample as many pieces “in the flesh” as possible. Working remotely meant very little disruption to this working archive.
The daughter of a leading Hollywood star wanted to donate their late Mother’s Archive to a top U.S. Museum.
The Archive was an amazing snapshot of 1930s-1950s Hollywood (numerous house moves yet she had kept everything) with some of the best and most important movie scripts we have ever seen. Containing thousands of papers and photographs, the Archive was appraised in excess of $2 Million resulting in a delighted client and an important acquisition for the Museum.
Hollywood’s
Golden Age Donation
Wildfire Loss Appraisal
A leading Los Angeles musician sadly lost a historical collection of instruments in the 2025 Pacific Palisades wildfire. The family contacted us to help with a Damage and Loss appraisal.
Although the instruments were irreplaceable and unique in terms of their importance to the musician’s career, it is our job to find comparables of other unique and iconic instruments sold at auction and write a compelling analysis to convince the insurance company of their true worth.