Art sales

In the art market, the price is usually agreed quickly and the terms are left to someone else — an invoice from the gallery, the conditions printed at the back of an auction catalogue, an exchange of messages with a private seller. That works until the buyer does not pay, the work arrives damaged, the seller changes their mind, or a question about tax or the source of the money holds the transfer up. By then, the terms that decide the matter are the ones nobody read.

A sale of art is a sale like any other, and also not quite one. The object is unique, the parties often want discretion, and several intermediaries may stand between buyer and seller. Settling the terms before the money moves means working through:

• the rules on the terms of a private sale, and on the moment ownership passes and the moment the risk does;
• the rules on auction conditions — the buyer’s premium, the reserve price and bidding in the room, by telephone or online;
• the rules on a buyer who fails to pay, and on the seller’s right to cancel, to resell or to claim the shortfall;
• the rules on guarantees and irrevocable bids that fix a price before the sale takes place;
• the rules on whether a gallery acts as an agent or as a seller in its own name, and on whom the buyer can hold to account;
• the rules on the identity checks and questions about the source of funds that dealers and auction houses must put to their clients;
• the rules on the tax a sale attracts, on the margin schemes open to dealers, and on sales that cross a border;
• the rules on keeping a sale discreet, and on when the names of buyer and seller, or the price, may be disclosed.

Our lawyers can support you with this.