Violin Market Valuation

Buyer's premium: Sotheby's / Christie's lower tier (New York Times, via Wikipedia; Antiques Trade Gazette 1999: Phillips and Bonhams also 15 %); 2000–01 assumed 17.5 %. Seller's fee: for each sale, the house's published rate in force (Sotheby's / Christie's general art schedule, 15 %, 10 % from Sept. 1975; in France the state tariff, 7 % + VAT, decree of 29 March 1985, until July 2002, then Vichy's terms, 12 % + VAT; Tarisio's terms, capped; Bongartz's 10 %; Gardiner Houlgate 15 % + 1.5 %; Aguttes' real fees from Nov. 2025), else the average of the published rates of the house's country; the line is the mean of the year's sales, each sale counting once like in the index. Weighted by dollars instead (in the hover), a few very dear violins pull it down: Tarisio's fee stops at $10 000. Fees are often negotiated: these are list rates. The French tax (TFOP, 5 %, 6.5 % from 2014, above €5 000) is not in the line; it is taken off what the seller gets. Hammer: the house's own figure, else the sale's premium measured on its prices (they turn back into round hammers), else the same house's nearest sale. What the seller gets: the hammer less the seller's fee (published rate, else the average of the published rates of the house's country) and the French tax. Same method as the index above, real; the price paid = 100 in the base year. Years with fewer than 30 sales left out; the shaded years have fewer than 100.