Facing long-standing uncertainties, French auctioneers met on February 5th 1998 and called for urgent reforms regarding their profession. They expressed the wish to work like their Anglo-Saxon rivals, notably to have the freedom to make cash advance payments to vendors and to guarantee selling prices. They also called for the suppression of VAT on imports of works of art and for
the harmonization of European rules regarding rights for the heirs of artists who died after 1927.