Gallery commission (2024)

When you sell work through a gallery, they will often take a percentage of the sale. This is called a gallery commission. The gallery takes this money to help pay for their business costs.

When you enter into an agreement with a gallery you need to negotiate is how much your work will sell for. This final sale price will include the money you, the artist gets, and the gallery commission.

Commissions and pricing

When you set prices for your work, you must to take this commission into account. Your final selling price should remain at an appropriate level. Your experience, medium, edition (where appropriate) and sales history all have a bearing on this. Read our article on pricing your work for more information.

The level of commission set on your work will be individual. You should negotiate this with the gallery. Take time to see if that price is realistic for where you’re at in your career and make a choice about how to go forward.

Commission levels

There is no standard level of commission. Galleries often add on anywhere between 33% and 100% to your price as their commission. Commission on work sold through boutique shops or specialist stores may reach as much as 250%, or more.

Rene Gimpel from Gimpel Fils gallery talks about artist/gallery relationships and commission.

Negotiating commissions

In all cases, you should negotiate your commission with whoever is selling the work. Agree this in writing in your contract of exhibition or written records if you are represented by a commercial gallery.

Things to consider when negotiating a commission level:

• Your accomplishments since you first priced the work. Have you had many exhibitions, residencies, commissions? And have you sold much at that price point?
• Peer research: what are other people at your career level selling their work for?
• The state of the economy: being realistic is an important part of selling.
• Finally, and always most importantly: are you happy with this price? Would you be comfortable telling people who have bought your work previously the new price?

Adding commission onto what you might usually charge could take your final sale price above what is realistic. You may need to reduce the amount you make from a sale to account for this and keep your price reasonable. If this happens negotiate with the gallery. See if they are willing to share any loss in return. It may be worth carrying this loss if ultimately the gallery will increase the amount you sell. You could consider this an investment in your career and future selling potential.

Keep your prices consistent

If you’re also selling work outside of the gallery, keep your pricing consistent. If you sell your work for £1000 in the gallery, it should sell for a £1000 everywhere. Selling your work cheaper to collector direct without commission is bad form. This cuts out the gallery, diminishing their profits. They will be less willing to support you as an artist. Mutual respect is the key to working with any organisation. You could damage your reputation and ability to sell work or create new projects if you do.