Joshua Baer is president of Joshua Baer & Company, in Santa Fe. Joshua Baer & Company specializes in the appraisal, authentication, purchase, resale, and restoration of historic Navajo blankets and rugs.
Since 1985, Baer has performed more than three thousand appraisals of historic Navajo blankets and rugs. Baer has acted as a consultant to Bonham’s, Christie’s, Cowan’s, Heritage Auctions, Hindman, Skinner Inc., and Sotheby’s. Individual appraisal and consultation clients have included Tony Berlant, Paul Cahn, Donald Ellis, Margot and John Ernst, Ambassador Richard Fredericks, Mac Grimmer, Laurene and Steve Jobs, Ralph Lauren, Linda and Stanley Marcus, Hal Riney, Helen Schwab, Jack Silverman, Edgar Smith, Gaylord Torrence, Mark Winter, and other private collectors.
Between 2003 and 2004, working on a pro-bono basis, Baer appraised and authenticated the classic and late classic Navajo blankets in the collection of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (MIAC) in Santa Fe. Between 2015 and 2017, Baer appraised and authenticated the classic and late classic Navajo blankets in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Baer has appraised Navajo blankets donated to the Navajo Cultural Museum in Window Rock; the de Young Museum in San Francisco;
the Center of Southwest Studies in Durango; El Rancho
de las Golondrinas in Santa Fe; MIAC in Santa Fe; the Wheelwright Museum in Santa Fe; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City; the Minneapolis Institute of Art; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.
In 1996, Baer testified as an expert witness in a court case involving the commercial values of historic Navajo blankets (Burke vs. Harmon; Lincoln, Nebraska, June, 1996). Baer has appeared on CNBC (1997), on NBC (1997), and on CBS (2000) as an authority on the market for Navajo blankets. On January 14, 1997, Baer was featured in USA Today as a prominent dealer in classic Navajo blankets.
In 2000 and 2001, Baer performed online appraisals as
the Native American art specialist at auctionwatch.com.
In April, 2017, Baer was interviewed by Native American Art Magazine regarding the classic Navajo chief’s blankets on display at the Scottsdale Museum of the West. In November, 2017, Baer was interviewed by Zack Guzman of CNBC regarding the collection history and scheduled donation of the Chantland First Phase Chief’s Blanket to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2021, Baer was interviewed by John O’Hern of Native American Art Magazine regarding Baer’s discovery of the Schoch First Phase in Bern, Switzerland. The Schoch First Phase is
the earliest known example of a Navajo blanket with documented collection history.
In 1974, Joshua Baer graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz, magna cum laude, with bachelor’s degrees in Art History and English Literature. Baer is the author of Collecting The Navajo Child’ s Blanket (1986), Twelve Classics (1989), and The Last Blankets (1998). Baer’s articles about Navajo blankets have appeared in Hali Magazine, The Magazine Antiques, Tribal Art Magazine, and The Santa Fean. Baer’s writings regarding the Berlant First Phase, the Chantland First Phase, the Schoch First Phase and other classic Navajo blankets are online at FIRSTPHASES.COM.
In 1986, Baer curated an exhibition of Navajo child’s blankets at Morning Star Gallery in Santa Fe. In 1991, Baer curated Space and Design, an exhibition of classic Navajo chief’s blankets for the Monterey Peninsula Museum in Monterey, California. In 1998, Baer curated
The Last Blankets, an exhibition of historic Navajo double saddle blankets. The Last Blankets appeared at Joshua Baer & Company in Santa Fe, and at the Winter Antiques Show in New York. In 2001, in cooperation with the San Francisco Folk Art Museum, Baer curated The Rio Grande Serape, an exhibition of Navajo, Rio Grande, and Saltillo serapes for the Tribal and Textile Show at Fort Mason in San Francisco.
In March of 2012, Baer appraised the Chantland First Phase Chief’s Blanket, Navajo, circa 1840, for $1,800,000. On June 19, 2012, the Chantland First Phase sold at Moran’s Auctions in Pasadena for $1,800,000, buyer’s premium included— at the time, the auction record for
a Navajo blanket. In 2018, the Chantland First Phase
went on public display at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York.
In July, 2015, Joshua Baer appraised the Denman Ross First Phase, Navajo, circa 1840, for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In May, 2016, Baer gave a lecture entitled Dah’iistłô (“From The Ground Up,” in Navajo) to the Textile and Costume Society at MFA, Boston. In 2018, the Denman Ross First Phase went on public display at MFA, Boston.
Between 2014 and 2018, Baer built a collection of classic Navajo blankets for a private collector in the Bay Area. In September, 2018, nine blankets from the collection were included in Agnes Martin / Navajo Blankets, an exhibit at Pace Gallery in Palo Alto. In November, 2018, Agnes Martin / Navajo Blankets opened at Pace Gallery in Chelsea, New York.
In August, 2019, Joshua Baer appraised three classic chief’s blankets and three classic Navajo serapes from
a private collection in New York. The six blankets are now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York. Two are on display at the Metropolitan Museum.
