HOW TO BID – COSTS AND OPTIONS

Prices

Prices of lots are set in the Polish currency. Prices displayed in Euro and US dollars are for reference only. All transactions are conducted based on conversion rates of PLN (Polish zloty). If you pay in other currencies, the final amount must be equal to the amount invoiced to you after the conversion from PLN.

Bidding

Bidding is conducted in Polish currency and in the Polish language.
Bid increments are tuned to internet live auction system and are not changeable.

BIDDING INCREMENTS
for amounts up to 5000 pln -> 100 pln
5000 – 10 000 -> 500 pln
10 000 – 100 000 -> 1000 pln
100 000 – 200 000 -> 2 000 pln
200 000 – 500 000 -> 5 000 pln
over 500 000 -> 10 000 pln

The increments may be higher but must be a multipie of the minimum values assigned to the range. This means, for example, that a bid over 100 000 may be 102 000 or 106 000 but not 107 000 (which is not a multiple of 2000)

The basic Premium of 20% of the hammer price will be added to the invoice.

Please be informed that using Liveauctioneers or Invaluable live bidding services will incur a premium increase to 25%.

If a lot was imported from outside of the European Union, then a surcharge of an additional 8% of the hammer price will be added to the total. This amount covers the import VAT rate, and may be deducted if the lot is exported back to a non EU country after the sale.

Example:
– you buy a painting that was imported from USA and you are from the UK. You bid using Invaluable. Your charges are : 20% for basic premium, 8% for import VAT, plus a 5% charge of the internet bidding operator (LA or INV) which makes a 33% total surcharge.

Droit-de-suite charge

According to EU law, we are obliged to collect “Artist resale tax”, namely “Droit-de-suite”, that we afterwards transfer to the artists or their inheritors (the law applies to all living artists and remains valid 70 years after the death of an artist).
The charge is 5% of the hammer price up to value of 50 000 euro, and then decreases according to the table below:

5%  from 100 – 50 000 euro
3% from 50 001 – 200 000 euro
1% from 200 001 – 350 000 euro
0.5% from 350 001 – 500 000 euro
0.25% from 500 001 – 200 000 euro  but total cannot exceed 12 500 euro

Example:
– you buy a painting for 60 000 euros. The charge is 5% for the 50 000 euro part of the price (2 500 euros) and 3% for the remaining 10 000 euros (300 euros). In total the charge will therefore be 2 800 euros.

Bidding possibilities.
You can bid personally, by phone or on live auction systems.

When bidding personally, you have to obtain the auction pad with a number at the cashier desk.
If you are a first time bidder please follow the procedure described in the registration section. You will be assigned a number, and then on auction day you will be given the pad with that number.
The pad has to be used to announce your bids in a way that is visible to the auctioneer. Please be careful, playing with the pad may provoke confusion during the bidding.

When bidding by phone, you have to complete the phone bidding form that can be downloaded here, listing the lots you intend to bid on and giving us your valid phone number. We call you twice – first before the auction to check if you have not forgotten the auction time :) and then,  just before your chosen lots .

Please be informed, that we may only guarantee your phone bidding order and assign you an auction assistant if you register 24 hrs before the auction. After this time we can not guarantee, that your phone bidding call will be accepted. We usually have many phone bidding requests , so please register as soon as possible.

We can provide you an English speaking auction assistant. They will translate the numbers announced by the auctioneer in the auction room as well as relay your bids back to them.

Internet bidding is also possible.

We cooperate with Invaluable.com that provides a live internet bidding systems in English. Please proceed to their websites to register. An additional fees of 5% of hammer prices will apply for using these services.

For Polish speaking customers we also run an Agra Art live internet bidding service at agraart.onebid.pl. No additional costs apply if you use this system.