Howard Nowes, AAA: Certified Appraiser of Antiquities and Tribal Art, New York
Howard M. Nowes is a certified appraiser of antiquities, ancient art and tribal art in New York City. He has worked in the ancient art trade since 1989, has dealt on his own account since 1992, and has run his own New York gallery since 1996: first as Howard Nowes Ancient Art at 1220 Broadway, since 2001 at 303 East 81st Street, and as Art for Eternity since 2007. He has been a certified member of the Appraisers Association of America since 2008, prepares appraisals to USPAP standards, and has appeared as an appraiser on PBS's Antiques Roadshow since 2023.
New York court appointments
On the New York State Unified Court System's Part 36 list of fiduciaries eligible for court appointment, as a property appraiser and as an auctioneer.
Museums
Works sold by the gallery are in the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University; the Princeton University Art Museum; and the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College. The gallery's appraisals have supported gifts to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard and the Yale University Art Gallery.
Expertise
Classical, Egyptian and Near Eastern antiquities; Pre-Columbian art; Indian and Asian art; African, Oceanic and Native American art.
Appraisals
Hundreds of USPAP-compliant reports since 2008 for insurance, estate, charitable donation and loss in value. Clients have included the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Dayton Art Institute, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Rutgers University, Clark Atlanta University, Ball State University, Concordia University, the Fashion Institute of Technology, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the Lenore G. Tawney Foundation; the insurers AXA XL and AIG and the claims firm J.S. Held; and the auction houses Doyle, Freeman's, Phillips and John Moran. Retained by the Internal Revenue Service as an expert appraiser of donated antiquities. Appraisal services.
Antiques Roadshow
Ancient and ethnographic art appraiser for PBS's Antiques Roadshow: Urbandale, Iowa (2024), St. Louis (2025) and Tucson (2026). Aired segments: a Sumerian cuneiform tablet of 2038 BCE and a Kuna nuchu figure. PBS appraiser page.
Consulting
Consulting specialist on antiquities and tribal art to Doyle, New York, since 2016, and on ancient art to Zemanek-MĂĽnster, WĂĽrzburg, since 2020.
Auctions
Art for Eternity runs online auctions of ancient, ethnographic and estate property on LiveAuctioneers. Consignment intake, cataloguing, estimates, condition reporting, sale management and settlement are handled in house.
Lectures and publications
Invited lecturer, Appraisers Association of America Lecture Series: "Restitution Confusion: The State of the Tribal Art Market," delivered at the National Arts Club, New York, 2024.
Illustrated catalogues (2017): Howard Nowes Ancient Art: 139 Fine Ancient Art Objects; Ancient Art and Artifacts: 207 Exquisite Ancient Objects; Domestic and Heavenly Goddesses: The Female Form in Sculpture; Capturing the Sun: Master Craftsmen of Ancient Mesoamerica.
Press
Has appeared in CNN, Architectural Digest, The New York Times and Newsday.
Background
Sotheby's, New York. B.A., History of Art, Skidmore College; Sotheby's Institute of Art, London. Member, Appraisers Association of America and the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association.