Provenance before 1970 is the benchmark
The 1970 UNESCO Convention set the date the trade and museums now work to. Bidders look for documented ownership before it, and for the paperwork behind the claim.
Markets · Antiquities & Archaeology
Antiquities offered with their provenance where bidders can read it
An antiquity is only as saleable as its documented history. Auctionomy gives your house a provenance field on every lot page, beside the description and condition, on a website that carries your name.
How your bidders buy
What your bidders read for
Due diligence is your house's work
Checking against stolen-art registers and collating the ownership history are what a responsible house does before cataloguing. Showing that work is part of selling the lot.
Culture, period and material, carefully qualified
Egyptian, Late Period; Roman, circa 2nd century AD; Byzantine bronze. Bidders read the qualifiers as closely as the object, and restoration is always declared.
Catalogued your way
Every line of the entry has its place
Description, estimate, condition and provenance are separate parts of every lot on Auctionomy, and each one shows on the lot page. The entry shown here is an illustration, written the way the trade writes it.
Illustrative lot · fictional
A Roman bronze figure of Mercury, circa 2nd century AD
Standing nude but for a chlamys over the left shoulder, wearing a winged petasos, the right hand once holding a purse. 9.8 cm high, on a later wooden base.
Estimate £3,000–5,000
- Condition
- Attributes lost. Green patina with areas of encrustation. Left foot reattached.
- Provenance
- With a London dealer, 1964, according to an accompanying invoice; English private collection, thence by descent.
Your sale on Auctionomy
Run the way your house runs it
A provenance field on every lot
The ownership history, with dates and named collections, shows on the lot page, where a bidder or their adviser can read it before bidding.
Condition and restoration stated plainly
Condition notes sit apart from the description, so a restored rim or a reassembled vessel is said once and clearly.
Bidders you approve
Every bidder registers with your house and you approve them, so you know who is buying before the sale opens.
Categories by civilisation and object type
Group your catalogue by culture, then by vessels, sculpture, seals or jewellery, and bidders filter it the way your specialists think.
Your trade, your house
Fluent in the trade, and unmistakably yours
Marwick & Hales Auction Rooms is a demonstration house: fictional, built on Auctionomy to show how a house specialising in antiquities & archaeology looks on the platform. Its name, colours, typeface and page layout are its own, assembled from the same components every house uses. Yours would carry your name, your logo and your look, on your own domain.
No commission on the hammer price
A flat subscription, agreed with your house. Your bidders register with you, and the buyer's premium you set is yours.