# How to Consign Art for Auction: From Enquiry to Settlement

> Source: LLB Auction (https://www.llb-auction.com/insights/the-market-in-motion/selling-and-consigning/consigning-a-work-step-by-step-from-enquiry-to-settlement)
> Author: LLB Auction
> Published: August 14, 2026

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Sellers who search how to consign art for auction meet house marketing that stops at the pleasant part. The clauses of the consignment agreement, the mechanics of the reserve and the settlement date, which decide what an owner receives and when, sit further down the page or inside a PDF nobody opens. This article follows the path in the order a seller lives it: valuation enquiry, estimate and reserve, the agreement and its terms, cataloguing and marketing, the sale, and settlement. Definitions and timings come from the published seller terms of Sotheby's and Bonhams and from European Union law. By the end, an owner will know how to consign art for auction and which six terms to pin down with any house before signing.

> **Key points:**
>
> - **The sequence.** How to consign art for auction runs in six stages: valuation enquiry, estimate and reserve, signed agreement, cataloguing, sale, settlement.
> - **Settlement.** Sotheby's pays sellers "around 30 to 45 days after the closing date", once the buyer's funds have cleared.
> - **The reserve.** Bonhams defines it as "the minimum amount you will accept for your property prior to our charges", confidential and never above the low estimate.
> - **The paperwork.** Swann Galleries will not draft a consignment proposal before it receives a detailed inventory list and photographs of the front and back of every work.
> - **The resale right.** Article 1(4) of EU Directive 2001/84/EC states that "the royalty shall be payable by the seller", at 4% on the first 50,000 EUR of the sale price and capped at 12,500 EUR per work.

## How to Consign Art for Auction: the Six Stages and Their Timings

Consignment is the arrangement under which an owner hands a work to an auction house to sell on their behalf, keeping ownership until the hammer falls. **Consignment** therefore differs from an outright sale to a dealer: no money changes hands at the start, and bidding sets the price. Sotheby's describes the seller side as a sequence running from selecting a house through sharing property details, specialist review, a written proposal, signed agreements, the sale and payment. The stages below map that sequence to the timings a European contemporary seller should plan around, and the wider path is set out in our guide on [how to sell art at auction through a house](/insights/the-market-in-motion/selling-and-consigning).

| Stage | What the seller does | Typical timing |
| :- | :- | :- |
| Valuation enquiry | Sends images, dimensions, medium, date and provenance with any invoices or certificates | Reply within days to a few weeks |
| Estimate and reserve | Reviews the proposed range and agrees a confidential floor price | 1 to 3 months before the sale |
| Consignment agreement | Signs commission, expenses, insurance, withdrawal and settlement terms | At or before the consignment deadline |
| Cataloguing and marketing | Releases the work, approves the catalogue entry and condition report | 4 to 8 weeks before the sale |
| Sale | Follows the bidding, may agree a lower floor if interest is thin | One day live, 7 to 14 days for a timed online sale |
| Settlement | Receives net proceeds after commission and agreed expenses | 30 to 45 days after the closing date |

Timings vary by house and by category, so every figure above is a planning assumption to confirm in writing. Anyone working out how to consign art for auction should treat the sale calendar as the binding constraint, since every other step is scheduled backwards from it.

## Making the Valuation Enquiry: What to Send, What Comes Back

Sotheby's asks sellers to "share images and what you know about the object, its history, any paperwork, where it came from" through its online portal. Bonhams frames the same step as a valuation request handled by a local office, after which "our team of specialists will provide an auction estimate and advise on next steps for selling". What comes back is an **indicative estimate**, a non-binding opinion of the range the work is likely to achieve, distinct from a formal written appraisal prepared for insurance or probate.

The completeness of the submission decides the speed and the accuracy of that reply. Eight items carry most of the weight.

1. **Artist, title and date.** Full name as it appears on any certificate, with the year of execution.
2. **Medium and support.** Acrylic on canvas, screenprint on wove paper, bronze with patina.
3. **Dimensions.** Height by width by depth in centimetres, unframed then framed.
4. **Edition details.** Edition number and size for prints, multiples and casts, plus the publisher.
5. **Signature and inscriptions.** Where they appear and how they read, photographed close up.
6. **Provenance.** **Provenance** is the documented chain of ownership from the artist onward: invoices, gallery receipts, estate papers.
7. **Condition.** Restoration, relining, foxing, tears or fading, with raking-light images of the surface.
8. **Price history.** What was paid, when, and whether the work has been offered at auction before.

Swann Galleries asks consignors for that inventory in writing, with photographs of the front and back of each work, before it drafts a proposal, and may arrange to see a large collection in person first. Nothing at this stage commits either side, so a seller working out how to consign art for auction should send the same package to two or three houses and compare the replies.

## Agreeing the Estimate and Setting the Reserve

The **estimate** is the published range the house expects a work to sell within, printed in the catalogue to guide bidders. The **reserve** is the confidential minimum below which the auctioneer will not sell. Bonhams defines it for sellers as "the minimum amount you will accept for your property prior to our charges", and Sotheby's as "a confidential minimum agreed price at which the auctioneer can sell the property". Across the trade that floor sits at or below the bottom of the published range, since a floor above it would make the printed estimate misleading. A floor set at the bottom of the published range leaves no room for bidding to start below expectations and build. A floor set well under it invites competition while exposing the owner to a weak outcome on a quiet day. If bidding stops short, the lot is **bought in**, meaning unsold, and returns to the owner having been publicly offered at a price nobody met. A bought-in lot carries that public record into its next outing, which is why specialists argue against an aggressive floor.

Market conditions should inform where that floor sits. The Art Newspaper reported in July 2026 that sell-through rates ran at 91% across Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips in the first half of 2026, and quoted Anders Petterson, founder and chief executive of the analysts ArtTactic, on "strong growth in the $50,000 to $500,000 segment". An owner pricing against 2024 conditions will therefore set a floor a 2026 room clears easily. Every account of how to consign art for auction treats the reserve as the seller's only price control, and it is exercised once, in writing. Separating a headline result from underlying value is a different discipline, covered in our notes on [what bought in means at auction](/insights/the-market-in-motion/reading-the-market/what-a-record-price-actually-tells-you-and-what-it-hides) and on [reading the art market without mistaking price for value](/insights/the-market-in-motion/reading-the-market).

## Inside the Consignment Agreement: the Six Terms That Decide Your Net

Sotheby's describes the seller's agreement, "also known as the 'consignment agreement'", as the document that "memorializes, in part, what's been negotiated in prior conversations". Signature converts the negotiation into obligations. Six terms decide what an owner ends up with.

1. **Seller's commission.** The percentage deducted from the hammer price. Bonhams calculates net proceeds as "the hammer price less our agreed seller's commission and any agreed upon expenses". LLB Auction applies a flat 10% seller's commission and a 20% buyer's premium, both disclosed before signature.
2. **Expenses.** Illustration, photography, transport, restoration and the loss and damage warranty fee that Bonhams names among deductible expenses. Each should carry a cap in figures.
3. **The reserve and who may move it.** Sotheby's advises sellers to consider lowering the floor a few days before the sale if interest is low, so the agreement should state whether the house needs written consent.
4. **Title and warranty.** The consignor warrants full title and authority to sell, and indemnifies the house if that warranty fails. Attribution rests on the documentation the seller supplies.
5. **Withdrawal and unsold terms.** What a withdrawal costs once the lot is catalogued, how long the house may hold an unsold work, and whether it may offer it privately afterwards at an agreed figure.
6. **The settlement date.** Bonhams states that "the date for payment of the net sale proceeds varies between selling locations", so the agreement, and not the brochure, is where the date lives.

Bonhams publishes its full seller conditions as [Conditions for Sale (Sellers)](https://www.bonhams.com/legals/9843/). Reading them against the written proposal is a standard step in how to consign art for auction, and the one most first-time sellers skip.

![A contemporary canvas being photographed for the auction catalogue in a lit studio, with catalogue proofs on a side table](https://renderings.laboetie.io/media/p7Qhvt38f8NHpwERv4oWv/w2560)

## Cataloguing and Marketing: What the House Does With Your Work

Once the work is released, Sotheby's describes the next stage plainly: "the object is catalogued: photographed, researched and written up for the auction catalogue and website, then marketed ahead of the sale". Three outputs matter to the seller. The catalogue entry fixes how the work is attributed and described, and the consignor should read it before publication. The photography determines how the lot performs online. The **condition report**, a written statement of the physical state of the work, becomes the reference every bidder relies on and every post-sale query returns to.

Online exposure carries weight in that calculation. The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2026, authored by Dr. Clare McAndrew of Arts Economics, recorded global art market sales of 59.6 billion USD in 2025, with public auction sales rising 9% to 20.7 billion USD. The Art Newspaper added the online picture in July 2026: online-only auctions rose 22% that year from a five-year low, with a record 33,474 lots sold online. Timing a consignment against the season matters as much as the channel, a question covered in our guide to [the collector's year of fairs, biennials and sales](/insights/the-market-in-motion/the-collectors-calendar). Sellers weighing how to consign art for auction should ask which sale, which catalogue and which platforms the lot will appear on.

## Sale and Settlement: When the Money Actually Arrives

Settlement turns on two conditions: when the buyer pays, and when the house releases funds. Sotheby's states that "buyers typically have five business days to remit payment" and that "the auction house will pay the seller around 30 to 45 days after the closing date". Bonhams attaches the operative condition: "Payment for sold property is made provided we are in receipt of cleared funds from the buyer." A consignor therefore carries buyer-default risk unless the agreement says otherwise. Our analysis of [reading a sale on both sides of the hammer](/insights/the-market-in-motion/before-and-after-the-hammer) covers what happens between the fall of the hammer and the invoice.

### A Worked Settlement on a 12,000 EUR Hammer

Take a signed screenprint by a living European artist consigned to LLB Auction, estimated at 10,000 to 15,000 EUR with a floor of 10,000 EUR, hammered at 12,000 EUR. The buyer pays 12,000 EUR plus the 20% buyer's premium, or 14,400 EUR. From the hammer price a seller's commission of 10%, or 1,200 EUR, is deducted. The **artist's resale right** is the royalty owed to a living artist or their estate on a resale involving an art-market professional. Article 4 of EU [Directive 2001/84/EC](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32001L0084) sets it at 4% for the portion of the sale price up to 50,000 EUR, with Member States free to apply 5% to that band, and Article 1(4) states that "the royalty shall be payable by the seller". At the directive rate that royalty is 480 EUR, and the total is capped at 12,500 EUR per work. Net proceeds come to 12,000 EUR less 1,200 EUR less 480 EUR, or 10,320 EUR, payable 30 to 45 days after the sale closes. National thresholds differ, since the directive lets each member state set a minimum sale price no higher than 3,000 EUR. This arithmetic is what most owners are really asking for when they ask how to consign art for auction.

## FAQ: How to Consign Art for Auction

### How to consign art for auction when the work is stored abroad?

Start the enquiry from where the work sits. Send the same documentation package covering images, dimensions, medium, provenance and condition, and state the storage country before an estimate is issued, because export licensing and shipping cost both affect the net. Under EU Directive 2001/84/EC the artist's resale right follows the country of sale, so the applicable threshold and rate change with the saleroom. LLB Auction coordinates worldwide shipping and confirms restrictions per lot before signature.

### What happens if my lot does not sell?

The lot is bought in, meaning bidding never reached the confidential floor, and ownership returns to the consignor. The agreement governs what follows: how long the house may hold the work, whether it may offer it privately after the auction at an agreed figure, and who pays return transport. Sotheby's advises sellers to check interest a few days before the sale and to consider lowering the floor, which is the last point at which an unsold outcome can be avoided.

### Can I set the reserve above the low estimate?

Not in normal practice. Sotheby's describes the reserve as "a confidential minimum agreed price at which the auctioneer can sell the property", and a floor above the bottom of the published range would make that printed range misleading, so houses set it at or below the low estimate. An owner who wants a higher floor negotiates a higher published range instead, which a specialist will only accept when comparable results support it. An unrealistic range with a matching floor is the most common route to an unsold lot.

### Who pays the artist's resale right, the buyer or the seller?

The seller. Article 1(4) of EU Directive 2001/84/EC states that "the royalty shall be payable by the seller", while allowing Member States to make another art-market professional in the chain liable instead of the seller or alongside them. Rates taper from 4% on the portion up to 50,000 EUR down to 0.25% above 500,000 EUR, with the total capped at 12,500 EUR per work. The right runs for 70 years after the artist's death, so it reaches most contemporary consignments.

### How long before a sale should I approach a house?

Work backwards from the published sale date. The specialist review, the written proposal, the signed agreement, transport, photography and cataloguing all sit between the first enquiry and the catalogue deadline, which is why houses ask for material months rather than weeks ahead. Swann Galleries will not draft a proposal before it holds a full inventory and photographs, and may arrange to see a large collection in person. Lead time is the largest practical constraint in how to consign art for auction.

## How LLB Auction Works With Consignors

LLB Auction is an independent contemporary art auction house running timed online sales of 7 to 14 days on its own platform, with lots also listed on Artsy. Three things shape what a consignor gets.

**Intake with a rejection rule.** Roughly 40% of submissions are declined. Per-lot due diligence covers certificate verification, ownership history and conservation records, and claims the file does not support are left out of the catalogue entry.

**Documentation before marketing.** Every accepted lot carries a three-page professional condition report, which governs how the work is described. The report is the record, and the house does not describe condition as better than it states.

**Terms disclosed before signature.** Seller's commission of 10%, buyer's premium of 20%, no hidden costs, with coordinated worldwide shipping and post-sale support. The Contemporary Art Spring 2026 sale on 26 May 2026 offered 25 lots and sold 23, for roughly 39,480 EUR in gross hammer.

Owners with a work in the 800 to 50,000 EUR range, and occasionally above 100,000 EUR, can request a valuation and receive an indicative estimate with the applicable terms in writing. An owner still weighing how to consign art for auction can start with that enquiry, at no cost and with no obligation to proceed.

## Conclusion

Consignment rewards preparation. A complete enquiry package produces a defensible estimate. A defensible estimate supports a floor the room can clear. The agreement then determines what is deducted from the hammer price and when the balance is paid. Sotheby's and Bonhams publish enough of their seller terms for an owner to arrive at any negotiation with six questions already written down: the commission rate, the cap on expenses, who may move the reserve, the warranty and indemnity wording, the withdrawal and unsold terms, and the settlement date. Knowing how to consign art for auction means holding those six answers in writing before the work leaves the wall.

**Also worth reading:**

- [How to sell art at auction through a house](/insights/the-market-in-motion/selling-and-consigning)
- [What a record price tells you, and what bought in means at auction](/insights/the-market-in-motion/reading-the-market/what-a-record-price-actually-tells-you-and-what-it-hides)
- [Reading the art market without mistaking price for value](/insights/the-market-in-motion/reading-the-market)
- [The collector's year of fairs, biennials and sales](/insights/the-market-in-motion/the-collectors-calendar)
- [Reading a sale on both sides of the hammer](/insights/the-market-in-motion/before-and-after-the-hammer)

**Sources:**

- [Roadmap for Consigning Property At Auction](https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/roadmap-for-consigning-property-at-auction) : Sotheby's, 2024
- [How to Sell with Sotheby's: A Step-by-Step Guide](https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/editorial-how-to-sell-with-sothebys-a-step-by-step-guide) : Sotheby's, 2025
- [Sell with Bonhams: Request a Free Auction Estimate](https://sell.bonhams.com/) : Bonhams, 2026
- [Conditions for Sale (Sellers)](https://www.bonhams.com/legals/9843/) : Bonhams, 2026
- [Auction houses made significant recoveries in 2026, ArtTactic report finds](https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/07/10/auction-houses-made-significant-recoveries-in-2026-arttactic-report-finds) : The Art Newspaper, 2026
- [The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2026](https://www.artbasel.com/stories/the-art-basel-and-ubs-global-art-market-report-2026) : Art Basel and UBS, 2026
- [Directive 2001/84/EC on the resale right](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32001L0084) : EUR-Lex, European Union, 2001
- [How to Consign Your Fine Art Collection For Auction](https://www.swanngalleries.com/news/auctions-101/2025/04/how-to-consign-your-fine-art-collection-for-auction/) : Swann Galleries, 2025