Koller Auktionen

Koller was founded in Zurich by Pierre Koller in 1958 and is now the largest auction house in Switzerland and one of the larger ones in Europe, with around seventy staff at its Hardturmstrasse headquarters and offices in Geneva, Munich, Düsseldorf, Florence and Beijing. It runs roughly eighty saleroom and online auctions a year across twenty collecting fields, each with its own specialist team, and its buyers come from more than fifty countries. Alongside the saleroom calendar it runs timed online-only sales under the Koller ibid name.

What you can buy

• Paintings: Old Master and 19th-century works, modern and contemporary art, and a dedicated Swiss art department.
• Asian art: a long-standing specialism, supported by the Beijing office.
• Jewellery and watches: separate specialist sales.
• Furniture, silver and porcelain: the classical decorative arts.
• Art Nouveau, Art Deco and design: twentieth-century material.
• Books, autographs and photography.
• Wine and vintage: the two categories that draw a different buyer entirely.

How the bidding works

Sales run in the Zurich saleroom, live online, and as online-only timed auctions. Bidding in a live saleroom sale over the internet, or leaving a pre-sale bid through an independent platform linked to Koller, adds a further 3 % to the hammer price on top of the ordinary premium — so the route you bid by changes what you pay. Koller states that it guarantees the accuracy of the age, authorship and provenance information given in its catalogues, to both consignors and buyers, which is a stronger position than most of this market takes.

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What to check before you bid

The buyer's premium is tiered and steep at the bottom of the range: 25 % on the hammer price up to CHF 400,000, then 22 % on the portion between CHF 400,000 and CHF 1,000,000, and 15 % above that. Swiss VAT is charged on the premium, and on lots marked with an asterisk in the catalogue VAT falls on the hammer price and the premium together — refundable against a validly stamped export declaration if the work leaves Switzerland. Since Switzerland is outside the EU customs union, factor import formalities into any purchase heading into the EU, and check whether a cultural-property licence applies.