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30/07/2003The art of the auction

A day at the auction can be an invigorating — and reasonably priced — way to build up your art collection, says Marius Benson.

Self-portrait with easel
by Otto Dix
If you have a lazy few million in your kick you can take your bidding paddle to the great halls of Sotheby's and Christies. But if you are long on enthusiasm but short on cash you can still be a player in the sometimes frightening but often invigorating world of art auctions. Buying anything at auction can be hard on the blood pressure. But if you follow Rudyard Kipling's advice to keep your head while all about are losing their's, you can walk away facing not financial ruin, but a very nice little something for the lounge room wall. The first step in the bidder's road to purchase is to go to the auction houses when they have their lots on display. They'll be on display for a week or more before the auction and catalogues are for sale for around DM20 to help you in your consideration Each work is normally listed with an expected price. This is a good guide to what the final successful bid will be. You can take it that about two thirds of the price will be the reserve, the minimum price the seller will accept. And remember that on top of the final bid price you must add 15 percent as the auction house's commission and seven percent tax. Even so you will find very good works by interesting German artists, and if you are interested in prints, you can find works by major artists, German and others, for only a few hundred marks. Flipping through some current catalogues I can choose between a signed lithograph from Spain's Joan Miro (estimate: DM 2000) a Salvador Dali for DM 600 and the German master Otto Dix, again a signed lithograph for DM 900. The range offered by the auction houses is wide and if you enjoy the hunt for that something special it can be a very pleasant way to spend a quiet Saturday afternoon. So you have spent time in galleries and museums, you know what you are after and you are vividly aware of how much you can pay You have checked out what the auctions are offering this spring, the time has come to enter the initially frightening world of the auction itself.
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