To the surprise of even auction houses, New York City has repealed its regulations that applied to book and art auctions. According to city officials, the actions were taken as a way to make New York City more conducive to business. Yet, did not the regulations give confidence to auction buyers?
Was there a need for the repeal? The regulations were designed to create better transparency for buyers and eliminate a few of the most problematic practices from past decades. For example:
- Licensing of auction houses and auctioneers,
- Reserve prices could not be higher than the minimum estimate,
- Regulations on what is known as “chandelier” bidding,
- Auction houses could not fake bids after the reserve was reached, and
- That the reserve price could not be higher than the minimum estimate, and more.
For more on the repeal and changes: Michael Stillman’s complete article on RareBookHUB: Click.
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