Estate and inheritance
The rugs in an estate
A written, dated and detailed valuation, usable for division, a notary or an insurer. We travel anywhere in Paris, deadlines included.
Why it is hard
Too heavy to move, too loaded to throw away
The clearance trade knows how to handle jewellery, paintings, silver and furniture. Rugs, almost never — they go to a skip or to the nearest second-hand shop, without anyone looking at the back.
We look at the back. It takes twenty minutes and it is the difference between a hundred euros and several thousand.
Before selling anything
Three precautions
We are neither notaries nor lawyers and none of this replaces their advice. But we see the same situations often enough to say them out loud.
Wait until the estate is accepted
Clearing or selling beforehand can be read as tacit acceptance of the estate — and of its debts. Getting a valuation commits you to nothing.
Get every heir’s agreement
Selling jointly owned property without the others engages your liability. We do not buy until the agreement is there.
Get a figure before deciding
A written valuation puts everyone on the same number, and stops the question reopening between siblings months later.
The document
What the written valuation contains
- One sheet per rug: presumed origin, period, measurements to the centimetre, knot density read on the back, warp and pile materials, nature of the dyes.
- Condition, described without flattery: wear, losses, selvedges, fringes, earlier restorations.
- A value, and the range it sits in depending on how the piece is sold.
- Photographs of each piece, front and back.
- The date, and the house’s signature.
Experts in this market charge between €80 and €300 for this document. With us it is free if you sell us at least one piece.
It is not always a death
The situations we handle
- Estate and inheritance — inheriting a rug nobody in the family can value.
- Divorce and division — a figure set by a third party, binding on both sides.
- Moving house — the rug no longer fits, or the new place has no room.
- Leaving the country — a hard date, and pieces too heavy to ship.
Your questions
Estates, division and valuation
Should we wait for probate before getting a valuation?
Is your written valuation acceptable to a notary?
There are several heirs and we do not agree.
The flat has to be cleared by a fixed date.
Free, no obligation
Have estate rugs valued
Tell us how many pieces, where they are and what deadline you are under. We call back within one working day.