Sell your art
Sell it quietly.
Most of what we place never appears anywhere. No online listing, no auction estimate published against your name, no record of a work that failed to sell — just a conversation with the two or three people most likely to want it.
Three ways out
We will tell you which suits the work
Route one
Private sale
We place the work with a collector directly. Commission between 10% and 20% depending on value and how much work the sale needs, agreed before anything moves. Typically four to ten weeks, and nobody outside the gallery knows the work was ever for sale.
Route two
We buy it outright
Where we can place it ourselves, we will make an offer and own the risk. Lower than a private sale result, immediate and certain — and we will show you both numbers so the choice is yours rather than ours.
Route three
Auction, honestly
Sometimes the saleroom is genuinely the right answer — a hot name, a hungry market, a work that benefits from competition. We will say so, introduce you to the right specialist, and negotiate the terms with you for nothing.
What we can place
And what we cannot
ArtistsThe names we handle daily — Banksy, Hockney, Warhol, Haring, Kusama, Riley, Hirst, Condo, Dalí, Picasso, Hambleton, Chadwick, Flanagan, Davenport, Slawn, Opake — and anything close to them.
Price bandFrom around £3,000 to £500,000. Below that, the fees make more sense elsewhere and we will tell you where.
EditionsYes, provided the sheet is in honest condition and the paperwork exists.
CollectionsWhole collections and estates, valued and released in an order that does not flood the market.
What we decline
Work we cannot authenticate to the standard we would want if we were buying. Anything with a gap in provenance where a gap should not be. Work under a restitution claim or on the Art Loss Register. And decorative prints sold as editions — not because they are beneath us, but because we would be selling you a story.
If we say no
You will get a reason, in writing, and the name of somebody better placed. That happens perhaps once a month and it costs you nothing.
How it runs
Five stages
01You send what you have
Images from your phone are enough to start — front, back, signature, any labels. Add the invoice and certificate if you can find them. Two working days later you have our view on value and on route.
02We look properly
If it is here, both partners see it out of the frame. If it is not, we will come to it, anywhere in the UK, or arrange a courier to bring it in. We check the recognised authority, the catalogue, the Art Loss Register, and the condition in raking light.
03We agree terms in writing
One page: route, reserve, commission, timescale, and who pays for what. Nothing exclusive beyond the period we agree, and nothing that rolls over silently.
04We place it
Quietly, to named collectors, with a proper condition report and photography we commission at our cost. No public listing unless you ask for one.
05You are paid
Fourteen days from cleared funds, with the buyer’s identity checks completed before the work leaves. One statement, no deductions you have not already seen.
What it costs you
No surprises at settlement
Commission10–20% of the sale price, agreed in writing before we start. One number, not a base rate with additions.
PhotographyOurs. Every work we take on is photographed properly and you keep the files.
Condition reportOurs, and yours to keep whether or not the work sells.
Transport & insuranceAt cost, on our carrier account, which is cheaper than yours. Insured in our store at our expense while we hold it.
MarketingNothing. There is no catalogue levy, no illustration charge, no buyer’s premium dressed up as a service fee.
If it does not sellYou owe us nothing and the work comes back at our cost.
Questions
An outright purchase can complete in a week. A private sale usually takes four to ten weeks to find the right home, and we would rather take eight weeks and the right buyer than eight days and a discount.
No. Provenance on the invoice reads as we agree it — commonly “private collection, London”. Your name goes no further than our file and, where the law requires it, the compliance record.
Say so and it comes back. The only exception is a work we have already committed to a buyer in writing.
Regularly, with the solicitors involved. That usually starts with a written valuation rather than a sale — see valuations.
Yes. Most of what we consign came from elsewhere. Bring us the paperwork you have and we will tell you honestly what it changes.
Send us the
photographs.
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