Terms of Auction
I. General Provisions
The public auction is taking place under the terms set out in Act No. 26/2000 Coll., On Public Auctions, Act No. 40/1964 Coll., Civil Code, Act No. 455/1991 Coll. on Trade Act and the relevant Auction Rules issued by Dorotheum GmbH & Co. KG which conducts business in the Czech Republic through its Dorotheum GmbH & Co. KG organizational unit, Prague branch, with its registered office at Ovocný trh 2, 110 00 Praha 1 – Staré Město, Czech Republic (hereinafter, the “Auctioneer”).
If the auctioned item is a declared cultural monument or if it is proposed to become such an item under Act No. 20/1987 Coll., on National Monument Preservation, the participants of the auction will be notified of this fact during the course of the Auction. National cultural monument items can be exported abroad only with the prior permission from the relevant authorities.
Sale and Export of Items of Cultural Value is governed by Act No. 71/1994 Coll., on Sale and Export of Items of Cultural Value, as amended. Such items can only be exported from the Czech Republic upon presentation of an official certificate stating that these items have not been declared a national cultural monument and that they are not even a part of a set which has been declared a national cultural monument in terms of act on National Monument Preservation.
If the subject of the auction is a collection or individual parts from a collection listed on the central record of collections of a museum-like nature by the Ministry of Culture, the disposal of such items is subject to the terms defined under Act No. 122/2000 Coll., on Protection of Collections of Museum-like Nature.
II. Auction Participant
Auction participants can only be persons competent to perform legal acts. This does not apply to under-age persons or natural persons who have been either divested of their competency to perform legal acts or whose competency to perform legal acts is limited, if the subject of the auction is a joint ownership share in an item to which they already have a joint ownership share, under condition that such persons must be represented either by their legal representative or custodian.
Auction participants cannot be persons disqualified from acquiring ownership and rights to the auction items; persons whose property is subject to bankruptcy proceedings or against whom an application for bankruptcy has been denied due to their insufficient assets or against whom was repeatedly confirmed compulsory composition with creditors due to their property, and this for a period of three years from the discontinuation of bankruptcy proceedings or it rejection on the grounds of insufficient assets or three years since completing of repeated compulsory composition with creditors. Furthermore, the Auctioneer, members of the Auctioneer’s statutory or control bodies, vendue master, persons close to such persons and Auctioneer’s employees or purchaser who prevented auctioning of the same auction item in the previous auction by the same Auctioneer cannot participate in the auction. No one is allowed to auction for these persons. Participants, including their agents and agents’ representatives are entered on a list of auction participants.
When signing the list of participants, the natural person, who is a participant, participant’s agent, participant’s agent’s representative, statutory body or member of statutory body of these persons, has the duty to identify himself by valid proof of identity (identity card, passport, residency permit for the Czech Republic) upon the request of the Auctioneer or the person authorized in writing by the Auctioneer to act on its behalf.
When signing the list of participants, the legal entity which is a participant, participant’s agent, participant’s agent’s representative, statutory body of these persons, has the duty to identify itself by a copy of an entry from the Commercial Register or other register in which this entity is entered and which must not be older than three months upon the request of the Auctioneer or a person authorized in writing by the Auctioneer to act on its behalf. The authorization to act on behalf of the legal entity must be evident from this copy of the entry, including the right to confer the power of attorney, and if this is not the case, such authorization must be documented by appropriate documents (e.g., minutes from the General Meeting). Copies for entries from foreign registers and documents corroborating the authorization to act on behalf of foreign legal entities (with the exception of Slovakia) must be certified accordingly (either by apostil or super-legalization).
Furthermore, the auction participants are obliged to submit their affidavit stating they are not persons disqualified from participating in auctions.
During the auction, the auction participants bid in person; bids must be made both orally and by raising participant’s auction number, which will be issued prior to the beginning of the auction against the payment of a refundable deposit of CZK 1,000.
III. Representation
Auction participant may be represented at the auction by its agent on the basis of a power of attorney with authenticated signature; apart from statutory body, a proctor can act on behalf of an auction participant – legal entity.
A sample power of attorney for Rödl & Partner Consulting, s.r.o., to act as an agent is included in the auction catalogue. Should a participant be interested, instructions can be issued to the agent by phone or in other manner.
IV. Course of the Auction
An auction catalogue is issued for each auction; items are auctioned in the same order in which they are listed in the catalogue. The lowest bid is usually two thirds of the estimated price (expert evaluation). Bid is usually increased by ten percent of the lowest bid or the last bid. The auction bid increases are set under the Auctioneer’s tariff of bid increases, which is an integral part of this catalogue. If no higher bid is made, in spite of the second call and the vendue master’s announcement under the Act on Public Auctions, the vendue master shall announce the final bid one more time and after the third call shall decide that the auctioned item be sold to the highest bidder. The auction participant is bound by its bid.
If several auction participants make the same bid at the same time and there is no higher bid, the vendue master shall decide to which participant the auctioned item is to be sold by a draw.
If, even after repeated calls, the lowest bid is not received, the item is considered ineligible to be sold in the auction.
V. Price Attained in the Auction
The price attained in the auction shall mean the highest bid made by the purchaser, and this price cannot be reduced afterwards. The purchaser is obliged to pay the price attained in the auction within the time limits set under Act No. 26/2000 Coll. on Public Auctions. For each auctioned item which the purchaser purchased, the purchaser is obliged to pay the Auctioneer auction fees for the participation, which determined by a flat fee of 20 % from the price of the item attained in the auction, and this is to be paid at the same time as the price attained in the auction and in the same manner. This flat fee already includes the VAT.
The price attained in auction can be paid in cash, by bank transfer to the Auctioneer’s account, money order or credit card (VISA, MASTER CARD and AMERICAN EXPRESS) to Auctioneer’s cash register.
VI. Acquisition of Ownership and Transfer of the Auction Item
If the purchaser pays the price attained in the auction within the set time limit, the ownership of the auction item is transferred to it in the instant of the auction knockdown.
The purchased item will be handed over to the purchaser under the conditions set in the auction rules along with a written certificate on acquisition of the auctioned item.
VII. Final Provisions
Estimate, expert identification and descriptions of items are performed by the Auctioneer’s experts. Information in the catalogue is the result of careful inquiries, however the exactitude of expert opinions cannot be guaranteed. As to the works of art, especially paintings and antiques, only those errors and damages that bear an effect on the artistic value are listed. These items may also be restored, damaged, non-functional, etc. If the auction item has been declared cultural monument, the price of the item(s) must be ascertained by expert evaluation.
All interested parties have the opportunity to inspect the items offered prior to the auction under the conditions set in the auction rules. Complaints regarding price, quality, condition and functionality of auctioned items will not be taken into consideration after the fall of the hammer. All services provided by the Auctioneer on the basis of these terms of auction or on the basis of contracts for carrying out auctions entered into with owners of the auctioned items are, for tax purposes, considered to be provided on the day on which the item is handed over to the purchaser.
According to our experts, the expressions listed below are considered to have the following meanings:
Signed, with a monogram / In the artist’s own handMarked / Possibly by someone other hand then by the artist’s
Assigned: / Possibly, but not necessarily an authentic work of the artist
Workshop: / Work probably originated in the artist’s workshop; i.e., in the immediate surrounding of the artist
School: / Work created in a style and period close to the artist or a regional group of artists
Circle: / Work created in a wider circle of the artist’s influence
Successor: / Work created in the style of the artist, but possibly of a later date
Imitator: / Imitation or duplication of work, created on an uncertain date after the original work
Artist’s name and surname with date and location: / Authentic work of a specific artist
TARIFF OF BID INCREASES
lowest bid and intervals of other bids in CZK / Minimum bid increases in CZKCZK 1,000 – 10,000 / CZK 500
CZK 10,000 – 20,000 / CZK 1,000
CZK 20,000 – 40,000 / CZK 2,000
CZK 40,000 – 100,000 / CZK 5,000
CZK 100,000 – 200,000 / CZK 10,000
CZK 200,000 – 400,000 / CZK 20,000
CZK 400,000 – 1,000,000 / CZK 50,000
From CZK 1,000,000 and more / CZK 100,000
The minimum extent of the bid increase expressed in CZK is subject to change in relation to the next attained bid in accordance with the table above.
For each auction item auctioned by the purchaser, there is an obligation on part of the purchaser to pay the auctioneer a fee for the participation in the auction set at
a flat rate of 20%
from the price of the item attained in the auction.