Service 02
Private sales
Not everything belongs in an auction. A private sale is quiet, unhurried and priced rather than bid — and the house will tell you which route your property wants.
When a private sale is the right answer
When discretion matters more than competition. When a work has been recently offered at auction and needs time out of the public record. When the natural buyer is one of four people in the world and an auction would simply tell them what you want for it.
And sometimes when the object is very large, very fragile, or very slow — property that needs a specific buyer found patiently rather than a room assembled on a Thursday.
How it works
We agree an asking price and a period of exclusivity. The department approaches collectors, institutions and dealers it believes to be the right buyers, showing the work in confidence. Nothing is advertised and nothing appears in a catalogue.
Commission on a private sale is negotiated case by case and depends on the price and the work involved. It is always agreed in writing before anything is shown.
What we will tell you
If we think an auction would do better, we will say so, even though a private sale is easier for us. A competitive room does something no negotiation can: it finds the price at which two determined people stop, rather than the price at which one careful person begins.