Auctioneer

Who is the auctioneer and what do they do?

The auctioneer is the person who conducts a sale from the opening price to the fall of the hammer that closes it. They take bids from the room but also manage those coming by telephone and online. They are both the voice and the conductor of the whole event, the person who holds the strings of the sale firmly in hand.

How does an auctioneer conduct a sale?

They set the pace. They decide how quickly to raise the price, when to encourage the room and when to let it breathe so that the tension does not drop. They follow several sources of bids at once — telephones, online and raised hands in the room — and must bring it all together clearly. The term chandelier bid, a bid called by gesturing into thin air, is bound up with their role.

How does an auctioneer affect the value of a work and the market?

The auctioneer does not set the price themselves — bidders make it — but their handling can either lift or calm the atmosphere of the room. An experienced auctioneer can sustain competition between bidders and bring a work to a price that faithfully reflects real interest. That is precisely why their craft is so highly valued: the difference between a lukewarm and a gripping sale shows in the final figure.

What does the fall of the hammer mean?

The fall of the hammer is the moment the auctioneer declares a work sold to the last, highest bid. With that the sale of this lot is closed and the sum becomes the hammer price. It is a symbolic full stop after which there is no way back, which is why the whole room waits for it in suspense.

What should you watch out for with an auctioneer?

It is good to know that, under certain rules, an auctioneer may call a bid no one has actually made — the chandelier bid mentioned above — in order to lift the price towards the first real offer. It is a legal instrument, yet it belongs to the greyer corners of the saleroom. That is why it pays to enter the room with a limit set in advance and not to be carried away by the pace the auctioneer sets.

— Anna Pulkertová, founder of Art Part Club