[custom_adv] An art exhibition was setup to display art works that were about to be put up in an art auction. Here are some hint in case you are looking to start one. Auctions are the art world's blood sport, with wealthy collectors and art speculators convening in tony salesrooms to compete with one another for the finest works coming to market—providing delight for the rows of onlookers who attend the events to watch the action. [custom_adv] They also tend to set the mood for the art market, with successful sales indicating a continuing boom and poor-performing auctions undermining confidence throughout the art world. For the initiated, they are enormous fun to watch, with record prices eliciting gasps and applause and celebrity bidders causing stirs. For those unfamiliar with the baroque logic of art auctions, they can seem impenetrable mysteries. In the interest of spreading the joys of art auctions, we've compiled a glossary of auction terms to explain how these glamorous contests work. [custom_adv] Auctioneer - The MC of the sale. A consummate showman (or woman), oftentimes British at the tonier houses, who is able to use both humor and high drama to wheedle remarkable prices from even reluctant bidders. Each auctioneer has a signature style, which among the younger generation of contemporary-art gavelers can lean toward the edgy and in-your-face [custom_adv] Hammer - This is the auctioneer's Excalibur, wielded as a cross between a conductor's baton and a judge's gavel, and when it comes down—sometimes with a light tap, other times with a plangent thunk—it indicates a sale. [custom_adv] Auction Block - The podium behind which the auctioneer stands, and frequently the object of the hammer's thwack. When an artwork goes up for auction it is said to "go on the block," though in reality the work is displayed by white-gloved handlers who strut out behind the auctioneer or on a screen. [custom_adv] Paddle - The snooty cousin of the ping pong paddle, these numbered instruments can be used to telegraph bids too—though many high-flying buyers opt for a more discreet approach, signaling the auctioneer with a prearranged system of signs. These can be as simple as a nod, or a complicated language with multiple bidding expressions. [custom_adv] Estimate - This is the auction house's guestimate for what a particular work could fetch in a sale, agreed upon in advance by the house's specialists (as a bracket around the appraisal) and included in the auction catalogues. It includes a low estimate and a high estimate, and is typically written in the format of "$14,000,000 - $18,000,000," or a permutation thereof. There are estimates for each individual work and estimates for the overall sale. [custom_adv] Reserve - The minimum price that a consignor will allow the auction house to sell an artwork for, meaning that if bidding fails to rise to the level of the reserve the work will be bought in. Exhibitions in commercial galleries are often entirely made up of items that are for sale, but may be supplemented by other items that are not. [custom_adv] Buyer's Premium - This is the surcharge that the auction house adds to the price of any sale, usually between 10 and 20 percent of the hammer price, depending on the house and the price point of the work being sold. Auction reports most frequently cite the total prices, including the buyer's premium, and auction records include them as well. [custom_adv] Seller's Commission - This is the vigorish that the auction house extracts from a work's consigner—unless the auctioneer is intent on landing the consignment, in which this fee can be waived (or negotiated down). [custom_adv] Hammer Price - This is the price of the winning bid at the time that the gavel comes down, before the buyer's premium has been added to the sum.
