Bonhams have announced that they will not be following Christie’s and Sotheby’s in raising buyer’s premium thresholds.
It means that the three auction houses have
moved from matching charges for buyers in their main categories to
operating three separate systems.
Although all three use a staggered premium
rating of 25%/20%/12%, they have all now adopted differing
thresholds at which those percentages change.
Sotheby's chose to push their thresholds to a higher level than
those announced by Christie's
at the end of last month.
Bonhams' chief executive for the UK and Europe, Matthew Girling,
said: "With the USA just coming out of recession and Europe still
struggling, we do not feel this is the right time to be adding to
our buyers' costs by increasing the buyers' premium
thresholds."
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