In Reply to: Surviving spouse is a prosperous artist posted by Mike Hagedorn on 08/26/05:
Here's my answer to an earlier question. You have an IRD item and there is no step-up in basis
If the artist was offering his work for sale, then you as John as stated have no step-up in basis. You then have the second issue of valuation. See the discussion in the Georgia O'Keeffe case which can be found at http://www.pgdc.com/usa/item/?g11n.enc=ISO-8859-1&itemID=210047, and the cite if this link doesn't work is T.C. Memo. 1992-210.
Anna Maria