Member Details

A full-time professional appraiser since 1986, Peter Sorlien has advised on the appraisal, purchase and sale of a wide variety of art and antiques, ranging from multi-million dollar paintings to the contents of homes.  He has been retained by museums, corporations, law firms, insurance companies, fiduciaries, heirs and individual collectors.  He is accredited for the appraisal of fine art, and is particularly experienced with marine art and antiques, illustration art, western art, New England art and early New England furniture.

His reputation for innovative problem solving has brought assignments as unusual as insurance of a 160-foot painting, donation of a 64-foot statue, feasibility studies of museums, and litigation over Jacques Cousteau’s ship Calypso.  He particularly enjoys challenging appraisals for collection management, charitable donation, divorce and litigation.  Scrupulous about conflicts of interest, he does not buy or sell anything for profit.

Mr. Sorlien has taught appraisal principles and theory to other professional appraisers for American Society of Appraisers (ASA), and participated in development of ASA^s four Principles of Valuation courses. He is a contributing author of both ASA textbooks on appraising personal property, including the chapters on research, analysis, approaches to valuation and insurance in The Appraisal of Personal Property (ASA, 1994).  He has served as national Education Chairman for Personal Property (5 years), an officer of the International Personal Property Committee (5 years), and President of the Boston chapter of ASA.