We represent your side of the transaction — valuing, negotiating and placing art across the world's salerooms.
Fifteen years placing contemporary, modernist and photographic art — alongside major street artists such as Banksy — with the right saleroom, at the right moment.Contact us for unbiased buying & selling advice
We model your options across international and regional salerooms — estimate, timing, settlement period and every associated fee — then negotiate reduced seller's rates on your behalf. All paperwork and remittance stays in your name.
Buying at auction, from dealers, from other collectors or direct from the artist. We negotiate on your behalf, verify what you are being offered, and reduce the risk attached to purchases found through informal channels.
We act for sellers across the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and consign into whichever market suits the work. Where a category performs better abroad, that is where it goes — with shipping, insurance and customs handled on your behalf.
Work from 1945 to now — the most actively traded category at auction, and the one where estimates move fastest.
Early- and mid-twentieth-century painting and sculpture, where condition and exhibition history carry unusual weight.
Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works, a market that rewards impeccable provenance above almost everything else.
Pre-1800 painting and works on paper, where attribution and scholarship determine value more than fashion.
Vintage and contemporary photography, where print date, edition and printer matter as much as the image.
Banksy and the wider urban contemporary market, where authentication paperwork is often half the value.
No photograph has set a new auction record this year, and the fairs report careful buyers. But the middle of the market is trading steadily, and the difference between a vintage print and a later one has never mattered more.
Auction turnover recovered sharply this year, but not evenly. Prints and editions had the better half of the story — and the gap between one title and another matters far more than any artist average.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK type an artist's name into Google every month. Almost none of them own anything they could sell.
We represent the seller rather than the auction house. That means comparing houses and sale dates, negotiating seller's commission and unsold fees, agreeing estimates and reserves, and handling shipping, insurance and settlement. The paperwork and remittance stay in your name. More on what an art advisor does.
That is most of the job. We put a work to the houses that suit it — international, specialist or regional — and compare what each comes back with: the estimate, which sale, the commission, the unsold fee and when you would be paid. You see the answers side by side and choose, and we negotiate the terms of the one you pick. The full account is on which auction house to use.
We compare pricing estimates and structures from all the best auction houses and offer you this as feedback to make your own decision. Our services are usually free of charge and all contractual paperwork and remittance remains in your name.
Our fees are typically 0%. On rare occasions we may need to charge a 2.5% - 10% commission due to the complexity of the sale. Even in these cases, because we negotiate reduced seller rates on your behalf, the overall cost of selling is usually the same or lower than consigning directly.
We have extensive experience working with all major auction houses. On choosing between them, see which auction house to use.
Yes. Send details and images and we will advise on likely pricing using results from a specialist art price database, with no obligation to proceed.
Yes. We are specialists in Pest Control documentation, Banksy valuations and shipping through the artist's preferred courier, and have negotiated original and print sales at the major houses with significant reductions in seller's fees. For what prints actually sell for, see Banksy prices.
We act for sellers across the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States, and the work does not have to come to us to be valued — photographs of the piece, its reverse and its signature are enough to begin. Where a category performs better in another market, that is where we consign it, with shipping, insurance and customs arranged on your behalf.
Three steps, and the first one takes a few minutes with a phone.
01Send photographs
The work itself, the reverse, the signature and any numbering, and any labels on the frame or backing board. Phone photographs are fine. This is enough to begin on almost every work we are sent.
02We identify it and value it in writing
What it is, which edition or period it belongs to, and a realistic range with the comparable results behind it — so you can see the reasoning rather than take a figure on trust. No charge, and no obligation to go further.
03You choose the route, we negotiate it
Auction or private sale, and if auction, which house and which sale. We compare the terms rather than accept a rate card, and the paperwork and remittance stay in your name throughout.
Whitebank Fine Art is a London art advisory and gallery. A photograph and a few details are enough to begin — a valuation carries no obligation to proceed.
