About Us
We offer professional appraisal services for the purposes of estate, insurance, non cash charitable donation, equitable distribution, divorce, and expert witness testimony. Founder and manager Loren Whittaker, Ph.D. is an unbiased third party who provides thorough, well-researched, accurate appraisals that serve as legal documents.
Whittaker Fine Art Appraisals caters to private collectors, museums, estates, insurance companies, legal firms, and financial institutions.
Loren Whittaker PhD, ISA AM
Loren Whittaker earned her PhD in the History of Art at the University of Kansas, where she received the Ted Johnson Interrelation of the Humanities Award, Department of Art History Academic Excellence Scholarship, and Marilyn Stokstad Award.
Loren’s mastery of assessing art began with her dissertation that analyzed the condition, attribution, and provenance of a large, privately held collection of European paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and metalwork spanning from the early-fifteenth to mid-eighteenth centuries. She conducted much of her visual and archival research in art institutions throughout Europe and has shared her work at national conferences of the Renaissance Society of America and at the International Congress on Medieval Studies. Another focus of her doctoral studies was 19th- and 20th-century American Art.
Loren examines and appraises private and public collections and continues to collaborate with her mentor, Dr. Burton Dunbar, professor emeritus and distinguished art consultant. Her professional experience also includes research positions in the curatorial departments of the American Art and American Indian Art collections at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
An Accredited Member of the International Society of Appraisers (ISA AM), Loren strictly adheres to the ISA Code of Ethics and is compliant to the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP) set forth by The Appraisal Foundation in Washington D.C.
Loren taught art history at the university level for 15 years, including at the Kansas City Art Institute and for the University of Kansas and its Study Abroad program. She is a member of the College Art Association and has served on the Award and Nominating Committees for the Italian Art Society. She and her husband support numerous charitable and arts organizations in Kansas City.
In addition to appraising art, Loren also shares her expertise with college students, including leading overseas study trips and developing course curricula. She was an instructor of record at the Kansas City Art Institute, where Thomas Hart Benton, pictured on the right in his 1972 lithograph Self-Portrait, taught studio art from 1935 to 1941.*
*And where this website’s designer, Judii Tran, also attended.
Alice Carman
Alice Carman earned her master’s degree in the History of Art from the University of Kansas, where she earned the Amsden Award, and her bachelor’s degree in English from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.
Alice worked as a project assistant on the nationally acclaimed American Indian exhibit at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and also has experience as a corporate manager and freelance business writer. She brings visual expertise to the appraisal process as an award-winning artist, with paintings hanging in numerous private collections throughout the United States. Alice divides her time between Kansas City and mid-coast Maine.
