Commission on art auction

Press, 16 February 1984, Page 16

Commission on art auction

Sir,—Mr R. G. Bell wrote to you on February 7 saying that Christie’s commission is 20 per cent and not 10 per cent as advertised. I believe Mr Bell charges 20 per cent. In your newspaper of the same day Mr Chote, of the International Arts Centre had a large advertisement saying he would be staying at the Chateau Regency and was seeking paintings for auction. His commission was 5 per cent. It was his aim to remove distortions in the art market occasioned by commissions of 15 per cent and 20 per cent. Mr Bell is calling for paintings for his next sale. Will he match Mr Chote’s commission of 5 per cent and settlement in three days? It is no wonder people have garage sales to avoid high commissions. — Yours, etc., R. JOHNSTONE. February 8, 1984. [Mr R. G. Bell replies: “R. Johnstone’s letter would have been more telling if the correspondent had studied my good friend G. Chote’s advertisement more carefully before rushing into print. It states he sells for as little as 2% per cent commission on good works of art, which is indeed low. As a rule, we could not operate at that figure, but we always settle accounts promptly. If the writer has a good painting for sale I do not blame him for getting the best deal he can. If he has a work that is worth a lot of money, I too will be happy to discuss selling terms with him. I made no attempt in my letter to justify our fees even if, as he suggests, they are high. I did, however, try to convey that we do not charge two commissions, one of the vendor and one of the buyer. I could write a book about garage sales and the people who run them. They are the ones who pester us on Fridays, wanting to know what they should charge for articles they want to advertise in ‘The Press’ garage sale column. Then there is the person who has held three consecutive garage sales who asks would we collect the left-overs and sell them in our rooms; and the individual who sent us the residue from her garage sale complete with stick-fast price labels, expecting us to remove them. I cannot forget either, the garage sale promoter who sold an oriental item for $2O, which, had he known it, worth all of $lOOO. It would

have paid him handsomely to sell through us. There are two sides to a story.”]