Pricing
One simple fee, agreed before we start. No hidden commissions, no markups, and no surprises after the hammer falls. And if it's your first piece and it's under $3,000, our work is free.
Fee Structure
Your first piece, under $3,000
Free
One per client. We take on a few of these each month.
Acquisitions under $3,000
$100
Flat fee
$3,000 to $10,000
$250
Flat fee
$10,000 to $50,000
$500
Flat fee
$50,000 and above
2%
$1,000 minimum, or a flat fee agreed before we start
If a purchase price lands exactly on one of these lines, you pay the lower fee. The only other thing that can appear on an invoice is an outside cost, like a formal appraisal or specialist condition report, and those are passed straight through at what they cost us. We never add a margin to them, and we never order one without asking you first.
How This Compares
Most art advisors charge a commission, usually around 10% of the purchase price, which means the advice gets more expensive the more you spend. Others bill hourly, often a few hundred dollars an hour, or ask for a monthly retainer that runs whether or not you buy anything. Our fees are flat and published above, so the number is the same whether you spend $2,000 or $9,000. If you want the full picture, we wrote up all four fee models and how to read them.
How Payment Works
Our fee is completely separate from the purchase itself. You pay the auction house, gallery, or seller directly for the piece, and we invoice our work on its own. We prefer it this way because an advisor should never sit between you and your money. Unless we explicitly agree otherwise for a specific purchase, like a sale that requires a registered bidder, the funds for the piece never touch our hands.
Client Protection
Auctions can get away from everyone. Almost all of our fees are already flat, so a bidding war never changes what you owe us. For pieces over $50,000, where our fee is a percentage, earning more when you pay more is exactly backwards. So for any auction purchase at that level, you can lock in a flat fee before the sale. Whatever the hammer says, our fee doesn't move.
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