How jewellery is valued in an estate

"How much is this jewellery worth?" In an estate, the answer is not merely a matter of the market: it follows a hierarchy set by Article 764 of the French General Tax Code. Understanding it allows heirs to choose the fairest — and often the least costly — route.

1. Public sale within two years

If the jewellery is sold at public auction within the two years following the death, the net price obtained is taken as the taxable value. The rule has its own logic: the market has spoken.

It is a transparent route, but it comes with constraints: sale timelines, auction house fees, uncertainty of the outcome — a piece may go unsold or fetch below its estimate. We outline the differences with direct purchase on our page devoted to auctioneers.

2. Inventory within five years

In the absence of a public sale, the valuation appearing in an inventory drawn up within five years of the death is used. This is the most common route for jewellery: each piece is described, weighed, characterised and then valued.

It is also the most manageable: you know what you are declaring, you keep the jewellery if you wish, and you hold an enforceable document. Our written valuation serves precisely this purpose; it is frequently requested by notaires, and we have written a guide intended for them: jewellery appraisal for notaires.

3. The heirs' estimated declaration

In the absence of the first two, the law uses the detailed and estimated declaration of the parties. This is the most exposed route: without an appraisal to support it, a figure put forward "by guesswork" is hard to defend in the event of an audit.

The insurance floor: the rule that gets overlooked

For jewellery, precious stones and works of art, paragraph II of Article 764 adds a constraint: if an insurance contract against theft or fire covering these goods was in force on the date of death, and had been taken out less than ten years before the estate was opened, the declared value may not be lower than the one appearing in the contract. Where several policies coexist, the average of the valuations is used as the basis.

Practical consequence: before declaring, you need to know whether the jewellery was insured, and for how much. We devote an entire page to this point: insurance and declared value.

Insurance value, market value, purchase price: three different figures

This is the most frequent source of misunderstanding in our appointments, and it deserves to be set out clearly:

• insurance value corresponds to the cost of replacing as new, in a shop: it is the highest figure;
• market value is the price at which the piece actually trades second-hand: it is the reference for an estate;
• the purchase price is what a professional offers immediately, in cash.

The same piece of jewellery can thus be "insured for €30,000", "worth €14,000" and "bought for €11,000" without any of these figures being wrong: they do not answer the same question. For the declaration, it is the market value on the date of death that counts — subject to the insurance floor mentioned above.

Updated on 24 July 2026 — scales and allowances are liable to change with each finance law.