# Estimate upon request > When a catalogue prints no estimate, a number still reaches the press before the sale. In the six cases in this archive the withheld figure was not absent, it was relocated. > The Study - 2026-09-10 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/study/estimate-upon-request/ ## Key points - In all six lots in this archive that carried a withheld or open-ended estimate, a figure still reached the press before the sale. The number was not absent from the market, it was moved out of the document that binds and into one that does not. - The briefed figure is not a better estimate. Against the hammer it missed by a factor of four on the Salvator Mundi and it missed low on the Chenghua chicken cup, which sold under the top figure the press had been given. - In excess of is a floor, not a forecast. Botticelli's Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel was catalogued at an estimate in excess of 80 million dollars and the hammer fell at exactly 80,000,000. - The same picture can be catalogued both ways. The Salvator Mundi carried a printed estimate of 1,200 to 1,800 dollars in New Orleans in 2005 and no printed estimate at all at Christie's in 2017. ## Six lots in this archive were offered without a printed estimate ## The number leaves the catalogue and arrives in the newspaper ## The briefed figure is not a better estimate ## In excess of is a floor, and once it was met exactly ## The same object, catalogued both ways ## How to read a lot with no estimate ## Why this archive is free to read A withheld estimate is not silence. In every case in this archive the number was published anyway, a few days earlier, by a journalist, in a form that binds nobody and can be revised without notice. Record it as marketing, keep it out of your price series, and read the guarantee symbols and the opening bid instead. Those are the numbers the house has to stand behind. ## Questions **What does estimate upon request mean at auction?** It means the catalogue prints no price range and a prospective bidder must ask the auction house for one privately. It is used almost exclusively at the top of the market: the six lots in this archive offered this way are the six most expensive results we record. **Is there really no estimate for these lots?** There is an estimate, and in all six cases in this archive a figure reached the press before the sale. The number is not withheld from the market so much as moved out of the catalogue, which carries contractual weight, and into press reporting, which carries none. **What is the difference between in excess of and estimate upon request?** In excess of publishes a number and declares it a minimum, which indicates roughly where the reserve sits. Estimate upon request publishes no number at all. The Botticelli offered in excess of 80 million dollars hammered at exactly 80,000,000, which shows how closely an advertised floor can function as a target. **Is a withheld estimate more accurate than a printed one?** Not on this evidence. The Salvator Mundi made four times the figure in its catalogue, and the Chenghua chicken cup hammered below the top figure the press had been given. The briefed number misses in both directions. **What should a bidder rely on instead?** The disclosures the house still has to make: whether the lot is guaranteed, whether there is an irrevocable bid, and the level at which the auctioneer opens. The opening bid in particular is chosen with knowledge of the reserve and is announced publicly on the day. ## Sources - [1] Sotheby's, 'The New York Sales November 2025: results from the Breuer'. Source for the estimate published as Estimate Upon Request, the sale date of 18 November 2025, the Leonard A. Lauder collection provenance and the total of 236.4 million dollars. - [2] Sotheby's press release, 'Sandro Botticelli's Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel sells for record 92.2 million dollars at Sotheby's New York'. Source for the estimate in excess of 80 million dollars, the total of 92.2 million and the sale of 28 January 2021. - [3] The Art Newspaper, 'Five years since the 450m dollar Salvator Mundi sale: a first-hand account of the nonsensical auction', 15 November 2022. Source for the catalogue estimate of 100 million dollars, the winning jump bid of 400 million and the total of 450.3 million with fees. - [4] Sotheby's, lot record for lot 5, a highly important and extremely rare Ru guanyao brush washer, Northern Song dynasty, 'Song: Important Chinese Ceramics from the Le Cong Tang Collection', Hong Kong, 3 October 2017, sale HK0747. - [5] The Value, 'Setting record for world's most expensive ceramic, Ru-ware brush washer fetches US 37.7m'. Source for the hammer of HKD 260 million, the premium-inclusive total of about HKD 294 million and the twenty-minute bidding contest. - [6] The Value, 'Tiny brush washer from imperial China is expected to fetch US 13m and that's only a conservative estimate'. Source for the pre-sale figure briefed to the press ahead of the October 2017 sale. - [7] ARTnews, 'Klimt's Elisabeth Lederer portrait sells for 236.4 m dollars at Sotheby's'. Source for the hammer of 205 million dollars, the opening bid of 130 million and the pre-sale expectation reported in the region of 150 million. - [8] Wikimedia Commons file record for the 2005 St Charles Gallery auction catalogue page reproducing lot 664, Christ Salvador Mundi, with the printed estimate bracket 1200/1800. Photographed for the Wall Street Journal.