Art auction
In June 1693, John Evelyn mentions a "great auction of pictures (Lord Melfort's) in the Banqueting House, Whitehall",[1][2] and the practice is frequently referred to by other contemporary and later writers.
Before the introduction of regular auctions the practice was, as in the case of the famous collection formed by Charles I, to price each object and invite purchasers, just as in other departments of commerce.
Nearly all the leading men of the day, including Horace Walpole, attended or were represented at this sale, and the prices varied from five shillings for an anonymous bishop's "head" to 165 guineas (gns.)
[1] The next great dispersal was Dr Richard Mead's extensive collection, of which the pictures, coins and engraved gems, &c., were sold by Abraham Langford in February and March 1754, the sale realizing a total that was unprecedented up to that time.
The importation of pictures and other objects of art had assumed extensive proportions by the end of the 18th century, but the genuine examples of the Old Masters probably fell far short of 1%.
Genuine works realized high prices, as, for example, at Sir William Hamilton's sale (1801), when Beckford paid 1,300 gns.
for the little picture of A Laughing Boy by Leonardo da Vinci;[1][3] and when at the Lafontaine sales (1807 and 1811) two Rembrandts each realized 5,000 gns., The Woman taken in Adultery, now in the National Gallery, and The Master Shipbuilder, now at Buckingham Palace.
[1] In the mid-19th century, a new type of art collector emerged consisting of men who had made large fortunes in the various industries of the midlands and north of England and other centres.
The dispersal of such collections as the Bredel (1875), Watts Russell (1875), Foster of Clewer Manor (1876), the Hamilton Palace (17 days, )—one of the greatest art sales in the annals of Great Britain—Bale (1881),[4][8] Leigh Court (1884), and Dudley (1892) resulted,[4][9] as did the sale of many minor collections each season, in many very fine works of the Old Masters finding eager purchasers at high prices.
A striking example of the high prices given was the realized by the pair of Anthony van Dyck portraits of a Genoese senator and his wife in the Peel sale, 1900.
[4] In the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th, the chief feature in art sales was the demand for works, particularly female portraits, by Reynolds, his contemporaries and successors.
Very many other illustrations in nearly every department of art collecting might be quoted—the superb series of Marlborough gems (1875 and 1899) might be included in this category but for the fact that it was formed chiefly in the 18th century.
The Fraser collection (December 4 to 6, 1900) realized about ten times the original outlay, the mezzotint of the Sisters Frankland, after Hoppner, by W. Ward, selling for 290 gns.
At the Louis Huth sale (1905) 83 lots brought nearly Reynolds's Lady Bampfylde by T. Watson, first state before letters, unpublished, fetching 1,200 gns.
In the early 20th century, prices and competition in art auctions increased, largely owing to American and German buyers.
As a result of this shift, the art auction model is changing to become more inclusive of contemporary artists, and offering a broader range of the artworks to wider audiences.
[20] In 2000, Christie's and Sotheby's admitted to a criminal price fixing conspiracy in violation of antitrust law, and each agreed to pay clients million in compensation for illegally coordinating the commissions they charged on sales between 1993 and early 2000.
