I suspect the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will resist deductions for donations of dead wallets because the owner can’t actually sell them. But its own decisions say otherwise. When New York art dealer Ileana Sonnabend died in 2007, her children inherited a Robert Rauschenberg combine titled “Canyon,” among many other things. Unfortunately, Canyon incorporates a stuffed bald eagle, and federal law makes it illegal to sell bald eagles. Accordingly, Sonnabend’s children couldn’t legally sell Canyon, so Christie’s valued it at $0.
