Hello Lissette,

Thank you very much for submitting an item for appraisal and for your patience.

The presented object appears to be a metal sculpture composed of repurposed fenders and other automobile parts. It measures approximately 7 feet tall and appears to be in good condition. It is not clear from the images or description provided if the artwork is signed.

In your title, you indicate that the work may be attributed to John [sic] Chamberlain. According to Artnet: "John Chamberlain was an influential American sculptor best known for his large-scale, crumpled scrap metal works. Chamberlain was born on April 16, 1927 in Rochester, IN and studied sculpture at the famed Black Mountain College. From the earliest years of his career, Chamberlain used readily available scrap metal for sculpture: his first major work was the archetypal Shortstop (1958), a pitch-black assemblage of car fenders, inspired in part from the readymades of Surrealism. Throughout the 1960s, Chamberlain continued to experiment with this method of fusion and collision, trying different materials such as plexiglass and even foam to create many pieces which remain untitled. One of his most-famous and ambitious works, American Tableau (1984), shelved different crushed cars of varying color side by side, creating a veritable towering pageantry of sculpture. Chamberlain’s works have been exhibited widely, and his collection of crushed cars is on permanent display at Dia:Beacon in upstate New York. He was awarded twice a Guggenheim Fellowship, and in 1993 was given a Lifetime Achievement Award in Contemporary Sculpture from the International Sculpture Center. He died on December 21, 2011 in New York, NY at the age of 84.

Chamberlain's original works typically fetch 5 to 6 figures at auction and can be purchased for even higher prices in galleries around the world, and though your sculpture is somewhat emulative of his style, techniques and certainly materials, I do not believe that it can be attributed to him, due to the overall quality of the composition and the bright color palette, which is not typical of Chamberlain's body of work.

I would, therefore, recommend an attribution of "after" or "in the manner of" John Chamberlain and would estimate the current fair market value of the work at $300 to 400, though retail and asking prices may vary.

If you are certain that the work can be attributed to Chamberlain and would like our authentication team to look into it further, please feel free to reach out to them by email at [email protected]. If you have any other questions, you can let me know in the comments section below.

Thank you again for your submission and have a wonderful day!

Kind regards,
Anne