17-12-2020, 10:00 AM
(This post was last modified: 17-12-2020, 10:03 AM by Nick Salmon.)
Yes Steve. They charge it because they can get away with it. We are fortunate that not all auction houses are so rapacious.
As an aside, in the 1970s I had a pal who worked in the fine art department at Bonhams. We commuted to London on the same train and in chatting one evening he told me that his firm was going to start charging commission to buyers as well as to sellers. It was completely revolutionary and my immediate reaction was to say they would lose shedloads of business. The media also thought so. How wrong we were.
As an aside, in the 1970s I had a pal who worked in the fine art department at Bonhams. We commuted to London on the same train and in chatting one evening he told me that his firm was going to start charging commission to buyers as well as to sellers. It was completely revolutionary and my immediate reaction was to say they would lose shedloads of business. The media also thought so. How wrong we were.