Don Butkovich and the Art of Appreciating Art

Oct. 16, 2015

Standing in the slums of Flint, Mich., amid industrial refuse and refugees from war-torn Europe, Don Butkovich discovered beauty and formed an enduring bond with art that would guide him through the rest of his life.

It was 1952 and an 8-year-old Butkovich had just glimpsed a Velázquez nude. The priceless painting was one of the only possessions a Croatian neighbor had been able to rescue before fleeing to America.

“I fell in love and said, ‘god, if I could paint like that…’” reflected Butkovich, 71.

In an effort to create his own art, Butkovich said he would often take his older sister’s sidewalk chalk and sketch on whatever bits of paper his family had.

Since then, his art-entwined life has led him down wonderful and sometimes difficult paths.

His resume is encyclopedic and includes accomplishments logged across Michigan and the northeastern United States and Canada, and it also details his expertise in numerous artistic mediums. Today, imbued with the wisdom of a life fully lived, he quietly runs Don Butkovich Antiques & Appraisals from his Traverse City home. Years of moving through the art world have also earned him a reputation as a man who understands the true value of things.

I know the prices — exactly what they should be and exactly what they shouldn’t be — if someone is out there cheating,” said Butkovich. “I turn people in to the Better Business Bureau. They call me up every month and ask me to join.”

Butkovich is quick to explain he doesn’t determine the value of a piece, but advises clients based on his extensive knowledge.

“I research as much as I can. I know as much as I can,” he said.

Despite the rise of the Internet age, Butkovich believes accurate information about art and honest appraisers are becoming increasingly difficult to find.

“They’re [blackballing] people so they can’t get the information unless they pay through the nose.”

To combat this growing informational monopoly, Butkovich has created his own pricing volumes, which he meticulously compiles and updates from large public auction house sales and other events. It seems fitting that the veteran appraiser should be creating books after spending his formative years immersed in them.

After seeing his first painting, he had the uncontainable desire to learn all he could about art. He snuck out of his house with his sole form of identification, a signed school report card, and applied for a library card. The librarian was so surprised by the young boy’s bravado that he agreed to give him a card. This introduced Butkovich to his second love: reading.

Butkovich said he has read hundreds of thousands of books, including the entire library of his alma mater, The Pratt Institute. This meant sleeping only two hours a night for more than a decade. His waking hours were dedicated to education and earning enough to get by, through as many as five, consecutive part-time jobs.

Looking back, Butkovich sees his years studying and learning to paint in Manhattan among the most formative of his life.

“I studied with some of the finest painters in New York City, taught with them and was treated like an equal,” he said proudly.

Butkovich also had the opportunity to rub elbows with artistic icons. Butkovich dined with Norman Rockwell and his wife at their hotel following a retrospective of his work. He met Mick Jagger at an after party and asked him to dance. More than once while working as an artistic liaison at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Butkovich tossed out Andy Warhol (and his “warped sexual crap”) for smoking on other artists’ paintings.

Albeit exciting times that came with a lot of professional respect, bills still had to be paid and money was a constant concern. As a financially-strapped student struggling to make ends meet, Butkovich began to collect and refurbish dilapidated antique furniture left curbside after penthouse foreclosures. He soon discovered this was something local antique stores weren’t doing. Relying on his education and considerable artistic knowledge, Butkovich was able to turn a tidy profit from the pieces he restored. He realized the potential of creating renewed interest in beautiful items others assumed were beyond salvaging.

After earning his Master’s in Fine Arts from Pratt, Butkovich lectured at several universities including NYU, Rutgers and Columbia. He continued to paint and his work was showcased around the city and throughout Canada.

If the first act of Butkovich’s life was filled with a love of learning, the middle act was dominated by love of a more personal nature — but also, significant loss.

“If I can sit down long enough, I can go back to almost every day anywhere in my life,” said Butkovich. “It’s horrible at times because I went through a lot of bad times.”

He lost numerous friends in the Vietnam War. His first marriage crumbled due to his wife’s infidelity; a betrayal that resulted in a painful estrangement with his young daughter.

“That was a big teacher in life, but I kept on painting and I kept on teaching,” said Butkovich.

In 1975, Butkovich returned to Flint to care for his ailing mother. Following her death in 1988, Butkovich moved to Port Huron, Mich., and learned to grade precious stones, adding another useful skill to his appraiser talents. Ten years later, he relocated again, this time to the Old Mission Peninsula, where he resides with his second wife.

Butkovich estimates he conducts 200– 300 appraisals a year. These range from entire estates to the appraisal of a single item, and his clients run the gamut from the wealthy to estate-sale bargain hunters to the federal government, though Butkovich said he is increasingly working with nonprofits. He recently appraised numerous Inuit pieces, including a carved walrus tusk, donated to Northwestern Michigan College’s Dennos Museum.

While Butkovich is certainly not denying the authority he and his fellow appraisers can wield (“My words sell things,” he stated matter-of-factly), he revealed that his career choices have never been about getting rich.

“I’ve never had a lot of money in my pocket or in my bank account,” he said. “Somehow, most millionaires are miserable in some way or another, whether it’s their own misery or making other people miserable.”

Yet, Butkovich happily recounts tales of purchasing tarnished-black bread plates in estate sales for next to nothing, which, after a little polishing, proved to be pure silver, and discovering priceless artwork relegated to the dusty corners of church attics.

For Butkovich, appraising art is a continuation of his own education and a way to educate others.

“That’s why I do appraisal sessions,” said Butkovich. “I can help people with the history of that thing if they have time to listen.”