<prompt> Human: First time posting and Im hoping to get some advice on how to proceed. My father passed in late 2014 after a short illness. We settled the estate and life insurance but he was a collector with the idea that these hard assets would pay for he and my mothers retirement. The issue is that he was a Russian immigrant and bought almost exclusively Russian things. Small antiques, religious icons, stamps, coins and paintings. Its time to cash out on some of this so my mother can finally retire at 71. My mother, sister and I think there are some valuable pieces but none of us speak Russian so we dont know what we have or where to start. Were also worried that if we bring in someone to help they will be able to tell that we dont know what we have and we worry about being taken advantage of. How can we protect ourselves through an appraisal and sale of these items?  <response>: Depending on where you live, museums can be a huge resource.They themselves cant appraised items, but they can offer you a decent list of recommended appraisers. Also a museum may be able to help you correctly identify this stuff too. Source: I have worked in museums for the past 4 years. 