Visual Stories

Photos: Auction appraisal at Anchorage Museum

They came with their treasures packed into cardboard boxes, hung in garment bags, wrapped in newspapers. There were Dutch paintings and Haida carvings and scrimshaw buttons and coats made of wolverine and ground squirrel. There were jade earrings and Javanese wedding ornaments.

Everybody who came to the Anchorage Museum's weekend appraisal event wanted to know the same thing: What is this, exactly? And is it worth something?

On Saturday and Sunday, participants brought items to the museum to be appraised by representatives from San Francisco-based auction house Bonhams. Museum members paid $25 and non-members $30 to have auction house experts evaluate three items, with the possibility that Bonhams would offer the owner a chance to consign an item. Proceeds from the fundraiser went to the Anchorage Museum.

A few hundred people came through over the course of the weekend, museum organizers said.

READ MORE: Alaskans haul out their heirlooms at museum appraisal event

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