What an Auction Guarantee Means for a Benefit

An auction guarantee is a promise made before the bidding starts. A guarantor sets a minimum for a lot, so the charity banks a floor even if the room stays quiet. The sums can be large. When amfAR staged the 30th edition of its Gala Cannes, the night reached $16 million in total, per The Hollywood Reporter's recap. That floor shapes the whole evening, from the lot list to the way after-parties get funded. The mechanism comes from the commercial trade, where The Art Newspaper describes it in one line: guarantees "ensure that a work is pre-sold at a minimum amount." At benefits the same instrument appears under calmer names, such as underwriting. A tour of that world, from floors to budgets, sits in the site's galas section. The tool matters to donors because it sets what a night can promise its cause before anyone raises a paddle. How a Guarantee Works at a Benefit Auction The guarantor and the organizer agree on a number before the event.

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