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AN ENTERTAINMENT-BASED APPRAISAL AND PRESERVATION PRACTICE FOR CREATORS, COLLECTORS, THEIR HEIRS AND ESTATES

Located in Los Angeles, California 

The company's founder.

Photograph by Alan Duignan.

WELCOME! IT'S NICE TO MEET YOU

Anne Coco Appraisals, Collections & Preservation is a private practice for creators and collectors, or their heirs and estates. Anne’s expertise was honed over three decades at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences where her responsibilities encompassed directing all activities related to their internationally renowned Graphic Arts collection. Chief among her duties were commitments to access and preservation of their encyclopedic movie poster and production art collections. 

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Anne has a long history cultivating relationships with filmmakers, collectors, scholars and the public. She is discreet  and balances the complex dynamics of collection care for makers who create material culture and the collectors’ space. She recognizes the distinct needs of collectors acquiring assets that conform to a personal collection development strategy and archives grown organically in support of a career. Anne is a great listener who asks questions that evolve into a strategy that reflects the personal ethos and needs of the clients who engage her.

ABOUT ME

My name is Anne Coco.

I am a Texas-born Californian who can often be found on a yoga mat, playing sous chef to a former trombone player who rules our kitchen or exploring the streets of my adopted hometown, Los Angeles.

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As a member of the Appraisers Association of America, I am qualified in Personal Property and Fine Arts Appraisals with an emphasis in Entertainment Memorabilia.

Movie posters | Production design drawings |

Costume design drawings | Animation artworks | Photographs |

Filmmaking and creator ephemera

Professional memberships:

A logo of the Appraisers Association of America.
A logo of the Society of American Archivists.

Social Handles:

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
A woman looking at a Metropolis movie poster.

Image courtesy of Netta Rosin.

A costume design drawing for The Sound of Music.

Costume design drawing for The Sound of Music, courtesy of the estate of Leonard Stanley.

APPRAISAL SERVICES

All services offered are in compliance with the Principles of Appraisal Practice and the Code of Ethics of the Appraisers Association of America*

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I am able to offer these Appraisal Services

USPAP Compliant Appraisals Reports

Insurance Asset Evaluations

Damage or Loss Claims

Estate Planning

Non-Cash Charitable Donation Appraisals

Equitable Distribution of Assets

Professional Opinion of Value

*In accordance with these standards, all appraisal reports are confidential, and no part of a report will be released to anyone without the client’s written permission.

ADDITIONAL SERVICES AND WHAT TO EXPECT WHEN WE WORK TOGETHER

In addition to writing Appraisal Reports, there are some related collection care needs that may be a higher priority for you. I can help with those too!

Additional Services

Preservation and Conservation Advice

Vendor Services

Storage and Transportation

Collection Development Policies for Acquisition, Preservation, Digitization and Storage

Curatorial and Loan Assistance

Publication Project Management

Database/Inventory Creation

Collection Stewardship

Collection Placement Advice 

Some Questions I'll Ask You:

How can I help you?
Do you have an inventory or other list of materials?
Do you have a provenance history for the objects in your collection?
Do you have documentation that supports provenance and/or authenticity?
Do you have images that you can share?
Where and how is your collection housed?
If you are considering a non-cash charitable donation, what is important to you as a donor?

A woman standing in front of a circa 1950 photograph depicting an movie-goers in 3-D glasses.

Double Vision at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019.

Stacks of movie posters covering a floor.

Salvage operation, Los Angeles, 2023.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT NON-CASH CHARITABLE DONATIONS, APPRAISALS, AND THE IRS

The IRS requires an Appraisal Report for any non-cash charitable donation totaling $5,000 or more.  The agency further requires that submitted Appraisal Reports are to be written by a Qualified Appraiser who meets the following criteria:

  • The Appraiser must have earned a designation from a professional appraisal organization.

    • Anne is an Associate member of the Appraisers Association of America (AAA).

  • The Appraiser must have a verifiable education and experience with the type of property being donated.

    • In addition to Anne’s experiences managing filmmaking assets for one of the world’s largest known cinema heritage collections, she has completed AAA’s Comprehensive Appraisal Studies Program (known as CASP) which included passing the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practices (USPAP) exam. USPAP is the Congressionally recognized set of appraisal standards issued by The Appraisal Foundation and followed by AAA members. ​

  • The Appraiser must be paid for their work and not be an excluded individual.  That's IRS talk for someone who is independent and impartial.

    • Anne is an unbiased professional who grounds her valuations in extensive research and best practices.​

A painted backdrop for Mount Rushmore in the movie, North By Northwest.

Painted backdrop for North By Northwest in situ at JC Backings, 2015.

LET'S CONNECT!

Please tell me a little about yourself and let's make plans to talk!

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS, CURATORIAL PROJECTS, AND SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

Publications

  • Coco, Anne. “History of Costume Sketches.” In The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Film and Television Costume Design: Themes and Issues Online. London: Bloomsbury, (2023) DOI: 10.5040/9781474207867.043.

  • ---- “Institutional Collecting in the Twenty-first Century.” In The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Film and Television Costume Design: Themes and Issues Online. London: Bloomsbury, (2023) DOI: 10.5040/9781474207867.044.

  • ---- “Giant: A Study of Costume Design in Transition.” Film, Fashion & Consumption, 8.1 (May 2019): 35-47.

  • ---- “Documenting Suspense: The Alfred Hitchcock Papers at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick Library.”  Hitchcock: Bastidores do suspense, São Paulo: Museu da Imagem e do Som, (2018): 12-13.

  • ---- and Jenny Romero, “Documenting Cinema: The Evolution of the Film Librarian.” Journal of Film Preservation, 97 (October 2017): 47-52.

  • ---- “Creating the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Production Art Database.” Virtual Costumer, 10 (2012): 32-38.

  • ---- “Drawing on Film: Access, Cataloging and Conservation of Costume Design Drawings at the Margaret Herrick Library.” In Documenting: Costume Design, edited by Nancy E. Friedland, New York: Theatre Library Association, (2010): 85-93.

 

Curatorial Projects

  • Highlights from the Alamo Drafthouse Collection of Mondo Posters, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick Library, January 2024-December 2025

  • Candid Hollywood: The Photographs of Nat Dallinger, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick Library, January 2015-January 2016

  • Kick Ass! Kung Fu posters from the Stephen Chin collection, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Grand Lobby and 4th Floor Gallery, 2013

  • The Fine Art of Film Posters: Selections from the Los Angeles Public Library Collection, Los Angeles Public Library, 2008-2009

  • Close Up in Black: African American Film Posters, Smithsonian Institution’s Traveling Exhibition Service, 2003-2005

  • The Origins of Screen Style: Hollywood Costume Sketches from the Leonard Stanley Archive, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 4th Floor Gallery and Grand Lobby, 1999-2000

  • The Man Who Drew Bug-Eyed Monsters: The Movie Poster Art of Reynold Brown, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 4th Floor Gallery, 1997

 

Public Speaking Engagements

  • The Historic Drawings Collections at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick Library, Drawings from Set Design to Film Analysis, Cinémathèque Française and Le Femis, 2024

  • Celluloid Paper Trail: Documenting Film Costume Design at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Margaret Herrick Library, Feminist Film History in Scandinavia: New Approaches, Methodologies, and Connections, Nasjonalbiblioteke, 2023

  • An Evening with the Saul Bass collection, Words on Film, Margaret Herrick Library, 2020

  • Sometimes Even Thieves Deserve to be Rescued: A Real-Life Archival Tale From the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library, Materials in Motion, 2019

  • Selection and Safe Handling of Moving Image Related Objects for Exhibitions, Association of Moving Image Archivists, 2018

  • What’s in a Name: Margaret Herrick, L.A. as Subject Archives Bazaar, 2016

  • Building a Graphic Design Collection, Los Angeles County Museum of Art symposium, study day host at the Margaret Herrick Library, 2014

  • Altering the System: American Movie Costume Design 1948-1982, ARLIS/NA 41st annual conference, 2013

  • Drawn into Hollywood: Documenting Costume Design in the Movies, Costume Society of America Annual Symposium, 2006

  • Movie Posters! From Commercial Function to Exhibition Object! A True Story Told on Big Paper!, Australian Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Material 3rd symposium for the conservation of paper, books and photographic materials, 2004

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