Harry L Katz is an experienced curator and appraiser of artistically, culturally and historically significant American and European works on paper including fine, documentary and popular prints, drawings, photographs, posters, cartoons and caricatures, illustrations and pictorial ephemera. He specializes in working with artists and collectors, and their estates, to manage large visual archives: organize, inventory and appraise pictorial collections for purposes of development and promotion, sale or tax valuation.

Credentials

Harry L. Katz is a qualified appraiser of American and European works on paper. His credentials include thirty years’ experience handling and appraising original prints and photographs, drawings, caricatures, cartoons and illustrations, and other forms of graphic art, at the Boston Athenaeum (1983-1991) and the Library of Congress (1991-2004), where he served as Head Curator within the Division of Prints and Photographs.

He has worked with collections representing a wide range of formats and eras, from fifteenth-century woodcuts to contemporary book illustrations. A specialist in American and European fine and applied graphic art, at the Library of Congress he supervised pictorial holdings comprising fourteen million images, including landmark photographs and photographic collections along with several hundred thousand historical fine and documentary prints and drawings spanning six centuries.

As a recommending acquisitions officer for the Library of Congress he met with leading artists and collectors, or their heirs, to evaluate and appraise potential purchases or gifts. Katz wrote acquisitions objectives and guidelines for gifts and purchases by the Library of Congress, including valuation and justification. As an independent appraiser he continues to work with individuals and organizations.