I'm not sure if anyone can help with this but thought it's worth a try. I'm trying to help my mom out as she's 83 years old and getting caught up in trying to sort this out.

My mom recently donated to Cornell University Asian Art Museum two nang yai shadow puppets that my dad bought years ago when he lived in south Thailand, and two little ceramic figures that represent a mom and her baby--they are called suwancaloke or something like that--that also may be quite old.

She moved from the house where these items were being kept and we took them to the museum without an appraisal first with hopes that they would accept them into their collection and thereby preserve them for others to appreciate, but now she has the dilemma of trying to determine even a ballpark estimate of their value so she knows how to proceed.

She doesn't know the value and to fill out tax forms to get the right amount for a deduction, she would need to have them appraised. She wrote to a Thai professor at Cornell that we had met when we took them for donation, but he said he's not sure that anyone in the US could properly appraise them. Now all we have are photographs of them because they're already at the museum but I think my mom at least wants to know a general idea of the amount that they might be worth. Getting an official appraisal may be impossible without someone flying to Ithaca, but does anyone know an appraiser or contact at a Thai cultural institution or museum who could help give an accurate ballpark estimate to my mom so she can figure out if she should just write it off or try harder to get an official appraisal?

I know this is being done backwards. That's where we're at. Thanks for any help.

I think the only shadow puppets most people know here are in politics.

Sorry