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Reference dossiers to help you understand fine art auctions, collecting, valuation and the market. Considered reading, free of jargon, to guide how you buy and sell.
The Provenance Premium: When Ownership History Adds Real Money
A documented chain of ownership is priced, and the market has measured how much. Catalogued pedigree, exhibition history and literature references carried hammer-price premiums of 36.86, 49.74 and 56.08 per cent across 2,257,485 painting sales between 1957 and 2016.
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The library
Three dossiers
Each dossier gathers the themes and the articles that answer one question a collector actually asks.
The Saleroom
A collector-grade guide to how to buy and sell art at auction: how a timed online sale runs, how an estimate is built, what the buyer’s premium adds to a hammer price, and how provenance, attribution and condition are verified before a paddle is raised.
Ways of Seeing
Learning how to appreciate art understanding paintings is a discipline, not a gift: it is the difference between a collector who sees a price and one who sees a picture. This catalogue-essay guide connects close looking, movement literacy, thematic reading and catalogue analysis into one collector-grade way of looking.
The Market in Motion
Art market trends arrive as headlines, but the signal sits in the data, the calendar and the sale mechanics behind them. A collector's guide to reading the market, timing a sale, and the path from valuation to consignment.
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The Provenance Premium: When Ownership History Adds Real Money
A documented chain of ownership is priced, and the market has measured how much. Catalogued pedigree, exhibition history and literature references carried hammer-price premiums of 36.86, 49.74 and 56.08 per cent across 2,257,485 painting sales between 1957 and 2016.
How Do You Estimate the Value of Art in a Limited Edition Print
How do you estimate the value of art that exists in more than one impression? Edition size sets the ceiling on supply; condition, proof status, provenance and demand for the specific image decide where beneath that ceiling a given sheet actually trades.
Estimate vs. Reserve vs. Hammer Price: Three Numbers Collectors Confuse
Three prices govern every lot in a contemporary art sale, and only one of them is printed in the catalogue: the published estimate range, the confidential reserve agreed with the consignor, and the hammer the auctioneer finally accepts.
Enchères Art contemporain en ligne : automatique ou en direct ?
Deux méthodes de participation coexistent : déposer une enchère maximale que la plateforme exécute à votre place, ou porter chaque offre à la main pendant la fenêtre de clôture. Comparaison chiffrée des paliers, des prolongations et du coût réel d'un dépassement.
One Budget, Several Lots: Tips for Bidding on Art at Auction Like a Professional
A timed contemporary sale often holds three or four works that belong in the same collection, closing minutes apart and drawing on the same money. The problem is allocation: ranking targets, dividing one budget, reading early results, and releasing a lot without regret.
What Is Bid Increment at Auction: Reading the Steps to Time Your Entry
A bid increment is the fixed step by which an auctioneer, or an online bidding platform, advances the price of a lot. Phillips advances in increments of up to 10 percent; Sotheby's uses roughly 10 percent of the previous bid. Their tactical use is a separate matter.
What Is the Winner's Curse, and Why Winning Can Mean Overpaying
What is the winner's curse? In any sale where several bidders estimate the same uncertain value, the buyer who wins is the buyer whose estimate ran highest, which makes the final bid the most optimistic valuation in the room.
Straight Bidding vs Proxy Bidding: Which Method Protects Your Budget
Every timed online sale forces one decision before the first bid: leave a maximum and let the platform execute it, or return to the screen and enter each step by hand. Straight bidding vs proxy bidding is a question of temperament as much as mechanics.
Art en vente aux enchères en ligne ou en salle : que choisir
Vente en salle ou art en vente aux enchères en ligne : rythme de l'enchère, clôture progressive, accès international et barème des frais acheteur, comparés pour un collectionneur d'art contemporain.
After the Hammer: What Art Buyers and Sellers Need to Know About Auction Fees
A winning bid is not the end of the transaction. The hammer price is the first line of an invoice that also carries a buyer's premium, value added tax, an artist royalty in most of Europe, and the cost of moving the work home under insurance.
How to Set a Bidding Limit at Auction: Identity Checks, Deposits and Approval Timing
A lot closes at a fixed minute, and a bidder still waiting for account approval at that minute owns nothing. What an auction house asks for at registration, why a new account can carry a cap, and how to build a bidding ceiling before the sale opens.
Soft Close and Sniping: Why Did a Lot Fail to Sell at Auction
A lot scheduled to close at 20:00 does not always close at 20:00. On a serious timed online sale, a bid placed inside the final minutes pushes the clock forward, and the lot stays open until bidding genuinely stops.
Timed Auction vs Live Auction: Which Format Serves a Collector Better
Framed as a search query, the decision reads: timed auction vs live auction. The practical difference sits almost entirely in one rule: how the sale ends.
The Art Authentication Crisis: Who Verifies a Work When the Boards Are Gone
The art authentication crisis is now live: the artist boards that once vouched for a work have closed, and AI can fabricate the provenance that reassured a buyer. Here is how a serious collector verifies a contemporary work before bidding.
Provenance d'une œuvre d'art : importance, attribution et état
La provenance d'une œuvre d'art, son historique de propriété documenté, conditionne authenticité, valeur et légalité. Comprendre son importance, lire l'attribution et le rapport de condition sépare l'acheteur averti de celui qui règle une facture sur la foi d'une photographie.
How to Authenticate a Painting: Reading a Professional Condition Report
A professional condition report is the document that should govern any bid. Learn how to authenticate a painting by reading it clause by clause: craquelure, relining, overpainting, foxing, fading and UV imaging.
The Attribution Ladder: Attributed to vs Studio of vs Circle of vs Follower of
Two paintings can share a period and a palette yet sell for figures a thousandfold apart. The variable is one line of catalogue text: attributed to vs studio of vs circle of. This guide maps every rung of the attribution ladder and how each reshapes value and risk.
Comment authentifier une œuvre d'art et ce qui fait sa valeur
Une œuvre d'art contemporaine n'a pas de prix fixe : elle a une estimation, une réserve et un prix au marteau. Comprendre comment authentifier une œuvre d'art et lire ses comparables, son médium, son tirage et sa provenance permet de situer sa valeur réelle.
How to Find Comparable Sales for Art and Read the Right Precedents
Learning how to find comparable sales for art, and how to read them, is what separates a collector who verifies an estimate from one who takes it on faith. This guide shows how to assemble, adjust and weight a comparable set you can defend.
Preparing Artwork for Sale: Why Two Almost Identical Works Sell for Different Prices
Two near-identical works, one edition or one series, can fetch multiples of each other at auction. For anyone preparing artwork for sale, this guide decomposes a real price spread into edition, condition, provenance and freshness to market.
Comment se déroule une vente aux enchères : méthode et sang-froid pour enchérir
Comment se déroule une vente aux enchères d'art contemporain, et comment y garder la tête froide : fixer un plafond tout compris, résister à l'ancrage sur l'estimation, choisir le bon canal d'enchère et savoir renoncer face à la malédiction du vainqueur.
Setting Your Ceiling: a Method for Deciding What a Work Is Worth to You
Knowing how to set a maximum bid online auction software will enforce begins before the sale opens. Build a true all-in ceiling from comparable sales and the buyer's premium, stress-test it, and commit it in writing so the room cannot move it.
Auction Psychology Bidding Strategies: Why Smart Collectors Overpay
Auction psychology bidding strategies that keep experienced collectors from overpaying: how anchoring, competitive arousal, sunk-cost momentum and social proof push a disciplined buyer past a limit, and a self-check to run before the hammer falls.
Comment fonctionne une vente aux enchères d'art en ligne, étape par étape
Une vente aux enchères d'art en ligne chronométrée se joue sur plusieurs jours, sans commissaire-priseur en direct. Voici comment fonctionne une vente aux enchères en ligne, du catalogue à la livraison assurée, avec frais acheteur, TVA et douane.
From Catalogue to Crate: What a Lot Number and Auction Catalogue Reveal
Every work offered at auction travels the same route, from a consignor's wall to a buyer's crate, and the catalogue is the map. A lot number is the identifier that fixes a work's place in the sale and threads every document that follows, from intake to settlement.
The People Behind Every Lot: What Is the Difference Between Live and Timed Auctions?
Every lot passes through five sets of hands, and each owns a different decision: the specialist, the consignor, the auctioneer or platform, the registrar and the underbidder. A collector's guide to who decides what.
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