Typically, a seller might pay about 10 percent commission on a $100,000 artwork. Murphy, whose company has been seeking to expand the number of collectors in countries like China and India. “It is small but it is growing,” said Mr. According to Christie’s, about 150 collectors worldwide can buy a painting for more than $20 million. The competition is fierce, in part because the number of elite collectors is small. Some analysts agree that conditions may get easier, if rising prices tempt reluctant sellers off the sidelines even without discounted fees. Ruprecht told analysts that an increase in the buyer’s fee last year had helped stabilize its business. Christie’s is owned by François Pinault, the French luxury-goods magnate, while Phillips’s owner is the Russian company Mercury Group. Ruprecht said it is impossible to compare Sotheby’s, a publicly traded company that releases audited results quarterly, with other houses, which are privately held. A thin margin on a $50 million lot is still a profit.” “Yes, the margins on the top lots are much thinner than the middle market. “The evening sales are immensely profitable,” said Christie’s chief executive, Steven P. Christie’s may have reaped little from the 10-foot-high “Balloon Dog,” but it made money on the whole night, in part because the sculpture’s presence helped attract other sellers. The auction houses deny that they are trimming profits with givebacks or putting themselves at financial risk. But these companies may also be repeating tactics that got them into trouble five years ago, when an art market bubble collapsed with the financial crisis, analysts and industry experts said. The sales fuel splashy headlines and perhaps rope in other sellers. That has not stopped the main houses - including Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Phillips - from doggedly pursuing a small clutch of millionaires and their art collections. In this game, the biggest collectors receive the best deals, which, several in the industry said, has led to an auction house paradox: The pricier the artwork, the lower the profit margin.
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