Urban Art Association

It's only one item, they'll do 18%. I'm just experimenting with them to see if I like this avenue. I appreciate the help though! The next time I'll hit him hard

So this includes pics, insurance and everything. Still 18% is high?

Good morning/afternoon everyone,

I have a few street-art pieces that I want to put up for auction as a bulk but I am not sure which auction house would be the most suitable to work on street art pieces. It is mostly limited edition prints and artworks by the likes of MBW, Shepard Fairey, Banksy, Invader, Oak Oak, Death NYC, JR, etc... In total I am looking to place 10-15 pieces in total.

I would be super grateful to receive some advice and some contact emails to proceed.

NB: All the pieces are in my house in Dubai, UAE, and I am happy to send them on consignment wherever.

Now that's a quality post if ever I saw one!

If you're looking to flog stolen art with no morals, try the French auction houses.

OMG please tell me you are not italian!!!

Just walk in, go the sale room and view, if you want to bid you will need to register so make sure you have photo ID some houses also ask for proof of address. Don't feel intimidated you're the customer they are there to assist you!

Best prices from Sotheby's, Christies & Phillips. 

It depends on what your selling. That KAWS print i would go with a New York branch. Send pictures to all 3 and see what they come back with. Just so you know they won't put the full value of your print as a reserve,
They like to start lower to bring in the bidders. Haggle the selling rates. 

Go on their sites and check the results for peace of mind 

I'm not surprised if its 6 high-end prints. Those KAWS prints don't ship too well so i understand.

One thing for sure its a good time of the year for selling, never sell in the summer

I’m thinking about buying from auction tomorrow for the first time... (excluding eBay, of course).

I can calculate the buyers premium and get that there will be an element of VAT (it’s a UK auction house and I’m a UK resident), but it’s not clear to me what the VAT is payable on. Is it on the hammer price, or only the buyer’s premium (or both)?

The auction house says the following:

“For each Sale category VAT at the current rate of 20% will be added to the Buyer's Premium and charges excluding Artists Resale Right.”

The item is estimated at a few £k, so this makes quite a difference.

That makes sense and accords with what I’ve read.

It’s just that VAT “will be added to the buyer’s premium” makes it sound like it is in addition to, rather than on, the premium, but I think this is just loose drafting.

Thanks!

Hi,

Seeing the latest auction results that Bansky is getting, I am not trying to sell but I am interested in understanding how sales work. If this topic has been previously discussed, my apologies, but I have not been able to find simple information.
The next reflection is to know when we see an auction price what is the real profit for the buyer. Depending of course on which country you live you will have one legislation or another, depending aution house, etc, but it is a reflection to have an approach.
Let's say you own your print that you bought for 1k and it gets a hammer price of 100k in the last auction. What is the benefit that you would have achieved? From the price of 100k we add the BP, 26% and the ARR, 4% ... 100 + 26 + 4 = 130k. To this we add the VAT ... 20% ... 130 + 26 = 156k.
Of the 100k auction they charge you the sale commission 5%? Plus shipping costs, etc ... let's say 6k. In this examaple you get 94k of a paid price of 156k. Of those 94k – 1k you have to pay the capital gains, depending on the country let's say 25% ... 23k.
94-23 = 71k. In other words, with a market value of 156k (what someone is willing to pay) you get 71 (45%). Or what is the same, 70% of the auction price or 50% of the auction price + BP.

If you sell directly without going through an auction, any sale greater than 94k will be positive for you (and obviously for the buyer), ignoring all the advantages / disadvantages that one system has over another, since I understand that neither BP nor ARR, nor VAT would be applied?

I am right? Someone with more experience who can add more information about commissions,taxes, etc.

Sorry again if this topic has been discussed but just would like to know how much worth is hanging on the wall and how art sales works.

In the UK you pay Capital Gains Tax at 20% above 12.3k allowance. You may be able to use a partner's CGT allowance too to make it 24.6k free. The 20% assumes you pay higher rate tax and may be lower if you don't, but I'm going to make that assumption for this.
In your example, you would end up paying CGT on £81.7k, so would pay £16.32k. So, post tax you would have £77.68k.

All of this assumes that you paid nothing for the print. If you have paid 20k, you need to deduct that as it is not part of the gain.

It does make sense, but i have no idea. I think you have to prove that you jointly own the item to claim a partners allowance. This calculator should help (select 'other') to establish what you may pay on lower rate income taxscouts.com/calculator/capital-gains-tax/
(just remember to put in the gain, not final value)