Last July, a Hilton Head resident who was downsizing contacted Master Appraiser Llewellyn Dykes to ask if any of their artwork was saleable. They offered to sell him one piece in particular for $15,000.
Dykes determined that the painting, which hung over their couch, was “Diana and Callisto,” a 200-year-old masterpiece by Italian master Gaetano Gandolfi. Art scholars only knew of the painting’s existence through an 1895 archived photo stored in the Louvre Museum in Paris. It had been missing more than 100 years.
When the painting went up for auction in New York City, Christie’s Auction House estimated the piece would bring $1 million.
Dykes figured the price at $2.5 million.
On Jan. 27, Dykes represented his Hilton Head client at auction.
The final price? $4.1 million.
Not bad for a former detective on the vice squad with the Baltimore Police Department.
Dykes began life in Baltimore as a smart kid who “flat-lined” the grading curve and found galleries and museums to be places of “refuge for me, of peace and safety.”
Dykes was able to go to college a couple of years early, but was admittedly too young to handle “having too much fun” and lost his scholarship. So he joined the Baltimore Police Department at age 19 “for the adventure.”
After a couple of decades of “treating law enforcement like a contact sport,” Dykes retired with “line of duty service injuries.” He moved to the Lowcountry more than 25 years ago and re-learned to walk in the surf here.
For the last 13 years, he has appraised property full time and is now designated as a Master Appraiser.
Dykes, who is based in Bluffton, estimates he has appraised close to $50 million in personal property and sold $13 million in art at auction in just the last three years.
His stories of art detective work are plentiful — and profitable.
He finds that frequently clients have art that has been misidentified, or they have no idea that markets have changed, so they don’t know the actual current value of what they own. He says this happens because not all appraisers do their homework.
For instance, in 2007, a Hilton Head client asked Dykes to assess a Russian painting that another appraisal company had attributed to Bogomolov and valued at $27,500. The painting was of Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour being finished and, Dykes recalled, “This is where that funny memory (of mine) comes into play… I remembered seeing that cathedral in the background when our presidents went to the memorial for a Russian premier, so I knew which one it was. Five minutes of research told me that cathedral was being finished in 1880; Bogomolov wasn’t born until well after that.”
Dykes asked a Russian expert to translate an inventory sticker on the back of the piece. The correct translation of the artist’s name was Bugoliubov, a personal painter to the tsar at the time. The piece sold for $3.3 million at auction.
Though he’s had no formal art training, a family Dykes had worked with in Baltimore were art dealers, and “they kind of adopted me,” he said. Spending a decade with them, Dykes “picked up an accidental education.”
After moving south, he bought and sold antiques to help a friend who’d set up an auction. The Hilton Head probate attorneys who came to that auction suggested he go through appraiser certification.
In addition to his training, detective skills, and love of art and antiques, Dykes says his “quirky memory” has played a huge part in his success as a property appraiser. “I don’t forget a face, a painting, a style, or a signature. Of course, I also get lost if I’m more than two blocks from my house.”
When he sees work he knows he needs to pay attention to, the experience is “almost visceral” and physical, he says. “If I walk into a room, and there are 20 paintings … one of them will give me a smack in the chest, like (being) hit with a 3-pound hammer. It’s a stylistic identification of something I’ve seen before. … I’ll know to pay attention to it, and the next day … when I wake up, I’ll know what it is. Or I’ll have enough clues to begin research.”
Dykes compares his research work to a scholar’s. “I begin to amass evidence and let it lead me in the right direction.” He also frequently credits the work of a “fabulous” team of experts.
Recalling an exhibit of Dutch masters of light, Dykes said he feels “most alive when standing in the presence of art that speaks not only with technique but with message. I cease to exist. The only thing that exists is that work of art.”
Llewellyn Dykes’ company appraises everything from heirloom treasures such as jewelry and estate pieces to sports memorabilia, antique ceramics, furniture and more. Call 843-816-0103.
