Sell with us
We are sensitive towards the different needs of collectors when they choose to part with their treasures. Nicholas Hall combines the expertise and acumen developed over the past 45 years with a fresh outlook and personalized approach to presenting the works for sale, both in-person and digitally. A considerable number of domestic and international clients, including private individuals and museums, make a special point to visit us when they are in New York. Besides our annual participation at TEFAF Maastricht and other trips to Europe, we are constantly exploring new ways of reaching a global audience while maintaining a focused and discreet profile. If you have something to sell, we’d love to help.
A step-by-step guide to selling privately
Begin with a free market appraisal for your art collection
The starting point of selling is to get a valuation of your work. You may wish to discuss the details over phone or send us your enquiry through email. A good image of the work, as well as the basic cataloguing information (artist, title, medium, dimension) and provenance can get us started. If you have other information that might facilitate the valuation, please do send them along as it could help you save time and resources. In some cases questions about attribution may arise, or an updated scholarly opinion on a work is necessary, we may be able to assist by consulting on your behalf current leading scholars and experts. Please note that due to the large volume of email enquiries we receive, it is regretfully not possible for us to respond to every one. If we believe our expertise is a good match for your artwork, then you should expect to hear from us within seven days.
Should you find it necessary to know the current market value of your art collection and wish to obtain a formal, written market appraisal for reasons such as
- insurance
- estate planning
- using fine art as a financial asset
- deciding if and when to sell
please be in touch to discuss your specific needs and to receive a quote. Nicholas Hall has participated and overseen thousands of appraisals both for private collectors and public institutions. In some cases, for a single artwork; in other cases, an entire collection.
Agree on minimum selling price and consign to sell
While we do make acquisitions for stock, a considerable proportion of the works we sell are on consignment. We will discuss with you and agree on the minimum selling price, as well as our sales commission, typically ranging from 5% – 20% payable at the time of sale. We are officially authorized to sell the work in question once you enter a consignment agreement with us, which grants us the exclusive right to sell the work for an agreed period of time.
Transportation and insurance
The consigned artwork will be shipped to the premise of our business – typically that is our gallery space in New York, but it could also be at our stand at TEFAF Maastricht or a freeport. We partner with some of the leading art transportation experts worldwide to ensure safe and professional handling of your valuable objects. We also seek the best advice for import and export related issues, if applicable. All consigned works will be covered by our insurance from the moment it is collected at your premise to the time it is passed on to the new owner, including the duration of our custody.
Selected Global logistics partners
Cataloguing and due diligence
We conduct due diligence on every single work we handle, using archival documents to ascertain authenticity and provenance. This is an area we care passionately about and we do not take for granted the information handed to us. Most of the works are researched and catalogued in-house, usually with the consultation of leading scholars in the area of expertise. In some cases, artworks require extensive original research which we commission scholars to conduct.
Professional photography
In this day and age, photographs of an artwork – most likely produced on a digital screen – play a crucial part in the opinions formed by a potential buyer or an opinion-maker. We are fastidious about providing professional high quality images of all the artworks we offer and entrust esteemed art photographers such as Christopher Burke Studio in New York, Artcento in Paris, Prudence Cuming in London, Mark Niedermann in Switzerland to capture the artworks in our care with maximum veracity. Should a buyer wish to make an acquisition from afar (as we have experienced from time to time), they can trust that there are no bad surprises when they receive the artwork on approval.
Marketing or targeted offer
We participate in TEFAF Maastricht – the leading art fair for Classical art – in March, and regularly organize exhibitions in our New York space every year. For a selection of exhibitions we produce catalogues (printed and online) with new scholarship. Let us know if you would like to consider exhibiting the artwork in any of our special programs, or to be included in the selection of works for sale featured on on our website. We may also propose print and / or online advertisements of your specific artwork, should we feel that it could benefit the sale.
Alternatively, we respect the preference that you may have for a more discreet and targeted sale strategy. In that case we will work closely with you and agree how many clients to offer a work to and we will communicate frequently on the progress of any transaction. Since 2020, we have developed a customized digital offering platform which allows us to present sales proposals with elegance and individualized content that enables us to connect better with global buyers. All dealings of this sort will be strictly private.
Either way, you can trust that it is in our interest to sell for the best fair market price.
Notable institutional clients
Settlement of accounts
After a sale, we will remit the proceeds to you within seven days of receipt of funds. Voilà!
SELECTED NOTABLE SALES
Can’t decide whether, where and when to sell?
We are happy to advise you on how to maximize the value of artworks you may wish to sell. Depending on your priorities you can decide whether to pursue the public or private option.
Very often you can achieve a price higher than an auction estimate selling through us though the time frame may be more extended. Alternatively, we believe that some works will achieve a higher price at public auction and we will counsel you accordingly. We have placed a number of works privately with public and private collections on a commission basis. Indeed, this is our core business.❖