Most collectors spend years thinking about what to buy and very little time thinking about how they would sell. When the moment comes, through a change of circumstances, a move, an inheritance or simply a change of taste, decisions about price and method are often made in a hurry, and frequently on the advice of whoever stands to earn the commission.
There are three main routes to market for a work of contemporary art: public auction, private sale, and consignment to a gallery or dealer. Each has strengths and each has costs. None is right for every work. The choice is worth making deliberately, because it can affect not only the price you receive but the reputation of the work for years afterwards.
AUCTION
Auction is the most visible route, and for the right work it can be the most effective. A well-marketed lot in a strong sale reaches a wide international audience, and competitive bidding can carry the price well beyond what any single buyer would have offered privately. The process is transparent, the result is public and, once the buyer has paid, the sale is final.
The costs, however, are real. The seller pays a commission to the auction house, which is negotiated privately and is not usually published. Terms vary with the value of the work and the bargaining power of the seller, and for the most valuable lots houses compete hard, sometimes waiving commission altogether. The negotiable nature of these fees was shown clearly in 2024, when Sotheby's introduced a published flat seller's commission of 10 per cent on most lots, then abandoned it within the year after it proved unpopular with sellers. Beyond commission, sellers may be charged for insurance while the work is in the house's care, for photography and catalogue illustration, and for shipping.
Auction also runs to a fixed timetable. The major London sales of contemporary art are concentrated in a few seasons each year, and consignments usually close two to three months beforehand to allow time for cataloguing and marketing. Payment to the seller follows the sale, commonly about five weeks later and only once the buyer has paid in full. From first conversation to money in the bank, the process can easily take four to six months.
The greatest risk is that the work fails to sell. If bidding does not reach the reserve, the lot is bought in, and that failure becomes part of the public record. As our piece on reading auction results explains, a work that has failed publicly can be harder to sell for some time afterwards. Some houses also charge a fee on unsold lots, and the seller may face further costs to bring the work home or re-offer it.
For valuable works, sellers can reduce that risk by negotiating a guarantee: a minimum price promised by the auction house or a third party, whatever happens on the night. Guarantees come at a cost, usually a share of any proceeds above the guaranteed figure, and they are offered only for works the house is confident of selling.
Auction tends to suit works by artists with a deep and active auction market, in good condition, with clean provenance and fresh to the market, meaning they have not been offered publicly for some years. It suits less well works by artists with thin or uneven auction records, works that are hard to illustrate or understand in a catalogue, and sellers who value privacy.
PRIVATE SALE
In a private sale, the work is offered quietly to a small number of potential buyers, either by the owner's agent or through the private sales department of an auction house. The price is negotiated rather than tested in public.
The advantages are discretion, flexibility and control. There is no fixed date, so the sale can be timed to suit the seller. If no buyer is found at an acceptable price, nothing appears in any public record, and the work can be withdrawn without damage to its reputation. Private sales are also well suited to works that would struggle to stand out in a crowded catalogue, or that need careful explanation to the right buyer.
The disadvantages mirror the strengths. Without competitive bidding there is no public test of the price, and a seller may never know whether a higher offer was available. Private sales can also take longer, since they depend on finding a willing buyer rather than assembling a room of them on a given evening. They are an established part of the market nonetheless: the Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report 2026 estimated private sales through auction houses alone at just under $4.2 billion in 2025, alongside the far larger volume handled privately by dealers.
Two questions matter above all in a private sale. First, is your agent acting for you, or buying the work for their own account to resell? Both are legitimate, but they create different interests, and you should know which applies. Secondly, how is the agent paid? A commission on the price achieved, agreed in writing, aligns the agent's interest with yours. An arrangement in which the agent keeps anything above a fixed sum you will receive, sometimes called a net return, may leave you unaware of what the buyer actually paid.
CONSIGNMENT TO A GALLERY OR DEALER
The third route is to place the work with a gallery or dealer who sells it on your behalf, usually for an agreed period. This works best when the dealer's own clients already collect the artist, so the work reaches buyers who are actively looking.
In some cases the best home for a resale is the artist's own gallery. Galleries often prefer to manage the resale of their artists' work themselves rather than see it go to auction, and many earlier sales carried a contractual right of first refusal for that reason. Before choosing any route, check your original invoice and terms of sale for such conditions. Selling in breach of them can damage your relationship with the gallery and, in some cases, expose you to a claim.
A consignment should always be governed by a written agreement. It should identify the work and record that you remain the owner until it is sold. It should also set out the asking price and the lowest price the dealer may accept without your consent, the dealer's commission, and the length of the consignment. Finally, it should say who insures the work, where it will be kept, and when you will be paid after a sale. Ask whether the dealer may show the work to other dealers or offer it through third parties, and how quickly it will be returned if you end the arrangement.
These details are not formalities. In a number of well-publicised cases, works consigned to dealers have been sold without the owner's knowledge, pledged as security for the dealer's own borrowing, or caught up in the dealer's insolvency. A clear agreement, regular confirmation of where the work is and prompt payment terms are the best protection.
CHOOSING BETWEEN THEM
In practice, the decision usually turns on a handful of questions.
■ How deep is the artist's market at auction, and how have comparable works performed against estimate? ■ Is the work in good condition, with complete provenance, and has it been offered publicly in recent years? ■ How important are speed, certainty and privacy to you, compared with the possibility of a higher price? ■ Are there resale restrictions or a right of first refusal attached to the work? ■ What will each route cost in commission and expenses, and what will you actually receive? ■ What are the tax consequences of a sale, and have you taken advice on them?
The answers often point clearly in one direction. Sometimes they point towards waiting. If the artist's market is weak, the season is wrong or the work needs conservation first, the most profitable decision may be not to sell yet.
COSTS, COMPARED
Whatever the route, it is the net figure that matters: the sum you will receive once every commission, fee and expense has been deducted. Ask for that figure in writing from anyone offering to sell your work, and compare like with like. Where the Artist's Resale Right applies, it is generally calculated on the sale price and must be accounted for too. Our piece on the cost of owning art sets out these charges in more detail.
HOW WE CAN HELP
Every sale we handle begins with a Pre-Sale Review: a realistic price range, the evidence behind it and the channel best suited to the work. We sell through all three routes, wherever the work was first bought, and our fee is agreed in writing before anything happens. If the honest answer is that now is not the moment to sell, we will say so. The full process is set out on Selling.