Do We Ever Really Care Who Lived In Our...
Home & Garden21 mins ago
Hi, Have an Edgar Hunt animal framed oil. Original. Looking for a gallery that buys that style of painting. Anyone know of one please preferably East Midlands. Don't say auction - 25% fee is a rip off. Thanks
I've dabbled in buying and selling antiques (although not in the fine arts) and I know that the usual policy of antiques dealers is never to offer private sellers more than a third of what they expect to sell an item for. I strongly suspect that will apply to art galleries too.
So, say, you've got a painting that's worth £3000 on the open market, a gallery will probably offer you around £1000 but, with luck, you might push them up to closer to £1500 (but only if they really want it).
If you sell at auction though, a private buyer might well bid £2500 (which, with the buyer's premium, will probably take their outlay up to around the market value of the painting anyway). An auction house such as Mellors & Kirk (in Nottingham) will charge you 15% + VAT commission on the hammer price (=£450), leaving you with £2050, which is still a lot better than what you'd get from selling to a gallery.