Drouot

Drouot has been the centre of the French art market since 1852, and drouot.com is the marketplace built around it. The Hôtel Drouot in the 9th arrondissement houses the salerooms where independent French auction houses hold their sales; the website carries those catalogues plus sales from partner houses elsewhere in France and abroad, including British firms such as Dreweatts and Olympia Auctions. For a buyer this means one calendar covering a large share of the French fine-art trade rather than one house's stock. Note the seasonal rhythm: the Hôtel Drouot closes over the summer and only online sales continue until exhibitions reopen in mid-September.

What you can buy

• Paintings and graphic arts: the core of the calendar, from old masters to modern and contemporary works.
• Jewellery and precious stones: a standing category with its own specialist sales.
• Furniture, sculpture and tableware: the classic mobilier et objets d'art material.
• Fashion and vintage: couture, accessories and designer pieces.
• Real estate: property sold at auction through the same network.
• Collections: single-owner sales of arms and armour, scientific instruments, clocks and similar specialist fields.

How the bidding works

Sales run both live and online, with a mobile app for bidding away from a desk. Because the platform hosts many independent auction houses rather than selling on its own account, the operative terms are the ones published by the house running each individual sale — the buyer's premium, the payment deadline and the collection arrangements are set per sale, not by Drouot centrally.

What to check before you bid

Read the individual house's conditions for every lot you bid on, because the premium and the collection terms change from sale to sale on the same platform. For anything shipped outside France, remember that cultural goods above certain values need an export licence, and that this is the buyer's responsibility rather than the auctioneer's. Condition reports are requested from the house holding the sale, and for works of any value that request is worth making in writing rather than relying on catalogue photographs.