Rooms full of well-dressed people, an auctioneer who knocks with a hammer, works sold for several hundred thousand or even millions of dollars: auctions fascinate and yet their mechanism is little known.

First of all, public auctions are as opposed to private sales of... public sales. The public nature of the auction is twofold.

On the one hand, there is an advertisement of the sale, everyone can consult the lots for sale, go to the exhibitions on the premises of the auction house and in most cases bid on site, by telephone or online. On the other hand, the sales are public because the price is public. Screamed by the auctioneer during the sale or available after the sale, the price is not confidential data.

To set up a sale, the auction house needs lots for sale, to provide its catalog of works of art. The reasons that lead collectors to sell are diverse: they may simply want to part with their pieces, need liquidity or sell following an estate. Across the Atlantic, it is possible to even see museums selling their works to finance future projects.

Auction houses then play a key role in evaluating each work with an estimate range. They must verify the authenticity and the origin of the work to ensure the quality of the thing sold because the mention in the catalog engages their responsibility.

The catalog includes the lots offered for sale, with their order of passage, description and estimate. Sometimes, a short comment explains the importance of the work in relation to the history of art. On this basis, collectors learn about the content of the sale and can place”Order at the table” that is to say, they give a maximum amount for which they would have been ready to bid in the room, others ask for a telephone line to bid via a representative in the room.

On the day of the sale, the auctioneer presents the sale, recalls the mandatory legal information and any changes made to the catalog. We call it “the room bill.” The auctioneer oversees the sale, takes the bids and chooses the levels.

An auction is an offer to buy. It is manifested by a raised hand, usually with a small racket with a number: the paddle that indicates the identity of the bidder. As long as the auctioneer has not awarded the lot, other bidders may”Cover” the auction, that is to say bidding at a higher price. When the auction game calms down, the auctioneer alerts the auction house that the lot has closed. In English, this is called a “fair warning” before a hammer blow indicates that the lot is sold.

Now you know the basics of auctions, it's up to you to run the auction houses!

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