The proposed reform of auction sales in France will find a solution next October, French Justice sources said. According to a draft due to be approved by parliamentarians, French auctioneers will lose their monopoly regarding voluntary sales. These will be held by commercial companies which will beforehand receive the agreement of a special council composed of ten representatives (five from the government and five from the profession including an art expert). People working in these companies wil have to be agreed auctioneers or possess the required diploma to conduct sales. As a result, auctioneers from Christie's or Sotheby's will be able to work in France without having to pass a special exam as the previous draft suggested.
However sales resulting from judicial executions will remain within the present jurisdiction which gives total monopoly to French auctioneers attached to the Justice ministry. The draft gives French auctioneers the opportunity to compete on equal terms with their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. They will thus be authorised to give cash advance money to vendors (40% of the low pre-samle estimate of an art piece), to guarantee a minimum price whatever the final bid and to have the faculty to negotiate in private the sale of a piece that has been unsold (however at a price at least equivalent to the final bid) within a period of eight days following the date of a sale.
Auctioneers will nevertheless be asked to take up insurances against all risks while their responsability regarding the authenticity of a piece will be reduced to 10 years (30 years at present).
Auctioneers who will not be able or not willing to form new commercial groupings will received compensation money from the State. The overall indemnity has been fixed at 450 million francs (US $ 75 million), a very low figure compared with the 2,23 billion francs compensation offered at the start by the former Gaullist government.
Home
