The effects of defective descriptions of art items sold at art auctions and during bidding – legal analysis
Publication date: October 23, 2025
The core of every offer at online art auction is a proper description of the item.
According to the Civil Code, the conclusion of any contract involves the exchange of mutually agreed declarations of intent between the contracting parties. The Code specifies various procedures for exchanging these declarations: the bidding procedure (Article 66), the auction or tender procedure (Article 701), and the negotiation procedure (Article 72). Even in a procedure as specific as the auction procedure, which is most often used by auction houses to conduct auctions, the provisions regarding declarations of intent and the regulations governing contracts concluded under this procedure will apply – in the case of auctions, this is most often the sales contract (Article 535 et seq. of the Civil Code). These regulations can be particularly relevant in the case of flawed descriptions of items offered at auction.
