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Antiques and collectibles can be worth a considerable amount of money. If you’re a collector or have inherited family heirlooms and you’re facing a divorce, you’re probably wondering how these assets will be handled.
There’s no set answer for how high-value collections are divided during a divorce. Often, they’re split between spouses, but in some situations, they might end up as the property of one spouse only.
How Antiques and Collectibles Are Handled During Divorce
Antique collections and collectibles often consist of rare and high-value items. For many couples, valuable collections can make up a significant portion of their marital assets. When couples who own collectibles decide to divorce, everything they own is divided up, including their collections.
The asset division process frequently leads to conflict during divorce, especially when valuable collections are involved. Couples are often split on whether a collection should be divided or whether all items should remain together. However, whether a collection is split up during a divorce depends largely on when it was acquired.
In many states, including New York, assets acquired during a marriage are considered marital property, while assets each spouse owned before marriage are considered separate or personal property. Most of the time, antiques and collectibles are divided during divorce only if they were acquired during the marriage.
However, there are some exceptions. For example, if one spouse owned a collection of antiques before marriage, but marital assets were spent refurbishing or restoring them, the other spouse would likely have some claim to them because marital assets were used to fund the restoration process.
Dividing Antiques and Collectibles During a Divorce
If you’re heading into divorce and you or your spouse own a valuable collection of antiques or collectibles, it’s important to begin by consulting a divorce lawyer who has experience handling cases involving high-value assets. A lawyer will help you assess which assets will be subject to division during the divorce.
When collections are part of the marital property, they must be appraised before they can be divided. In many cases, collections have a higher value taken as a whole, rather than divided up. Your divorce attorney can help ensure a qualified appraiser offers a fair valuation of all items, both individually and as a whole collection.
Exactly how antiques and collectibles are split during a divorce often depends on the goals and desires of both spouses. In some cases, a couple may agree to sell or auction off the collection and split the resulting money. In other cases, couples may decide to negotiate over which spouse will maintain ownership of which pieces.
In still other cases, one spouse may feel strongly about maintaining ownership of the collection as a whole. Depending on the value of marital assets owed to them and the value of the collection, the spouse who wishes to keep the collection might be able to negotiate for ownership by giving up other assets of value or buying out their spouse for the amount owed to them.
Speak With Our Garden City Divorce Lawyers
Asset division is often the most contentious part of a divorce. When a high-value collection of antiques or collectibles is involved, things grow even more complex. Determining whether the collection is marital property, accurately valuing the items, and moving forward with an equitable division takes skill, legal knowledge, and experience handling rare and high-value assets.
The skilled Garden City divorce attorneys at Aiello & DiFalco understand the intricacies of asset division when rare antiques and collectibles are involved. Contact our firm today to schedule a consultation to discuss how our Garden City, NY, divorce lawyers can help with your case.