# The Underbidder Set the Price > Fourteen records show the underbidder sets the hammer price and is almost never named. Where this archive knows the loser it is usually a museum or a state. > The Study - 2026-09-18 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/study/the-underbidder-set-the-price/ ## Key points - A hammer price is the last losing bid plus one increment, so the underbidder sets the number and the winner confirms it. Of 14 records in this archive with a documented second party, the underbidder is named or identified by role in six, the losing institution but not the last bid is named in one, five say the underbidder is unknown and two had no auction. - Where the archive knows the underbidder it is usually a museum or a state: Agnew's for the National Gallery of Art under the Velazquez in 1970, the Louvre and the National Gallery, London, under the Vermeer in 1892, the Cariplo Foundation under the Codex Leicester in 1994, Greece's consul general at 1.9 million under the Archimedes Palimpsest in 1998, and the Bristol Museums Development Trust outbid on the Turner in 2025. - The Codex Sassoon shows that the underbid matters more than the name: an unnamed rival's 33 million dollars against Alfred Moses's 33.5 million proves a rival went 500,000 dollars over an irrevocable bid of 32.5 million, on a lot the Sotheby's page marks as guaranteed property. - The two private treaty prices in the archive, 3.5 million euros for the coffin of Nedjemankh in 2017 and 1,674,000 dollars for the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet in 2014, had no second party and no depth, and both objects were seized in 2019. - No auction house publishes a written policy on underbidders that we could find; the practice is silence, broken at the house's discretion, as when Sotheby's said the Botticelli under-bidder acted for an Asian collector and nothing more. ## The loser sets the price and the record leaves them out ## Juan de Pareja, 1970: Washington under New York, and no premium in the room ## The Concert, 1892: two national museums cancelled each other out ## Codex Leicester, 1994: a Milan foundation, one bid short ## Archimedes Palimpsest, 1998: a state stopped at 1.9 million ## Turner, 2025: the loser everyone can name is not the underbidder ## Cimabue, 2019 and Botticelli, 2021: a gallery and an agent, both unnamed ## Does a named underbidder make a price more reliable? ## Why the second name is missing, and what to do about it ## Why this archive is free to read Every hammer price in this archive was set by someone who went home without the object, and the record almost never says who. Where it does, the name is usually a museum or a government: Washington under the Velazquez, the Louvre and Trafalgar Square under the Vermeer, Milan under the Leicester, Athens under the Archimedes, Bristol under the Turner. Read a hammer as the loser's number plus one step, look for the loser's own paper when the loser was public, and treat a private treaty figure as a price with nobody standing behind it. ## Questions **What is an underbidder at auction?** The underbidder is the bidder whose last bid was topped by the winner. Because an auctioneer takes bids in fixed increments, the hammer price is the underbidder's final bid plus one step, which is why the loser rather than the winner sets the number. **Who was the underbidder for Juan de Pareja in 1970?** Thomas Agnew and Sons, bidding for the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The National Gallery in London holds Geoffrey Agnew's account of the attempt under the reference NGA27/24/17/15 and the title The One That Got Away. Wildenstein won for the Metropolitan Museum at 2,200,000 guineas. **Who lost the Codex Leicester to Bill Gates?** The Cariplo Foundation of Milan, backed by one of Italy's largest banks, was the underbidder at Christie's New York on 11 November 1994, where the manuscript made 30,802,500 dollars with premium. Gates said within days that he would lend it to the Italian institution he had outbid. **Do auction houses publish who the underbidder was?** Not as a rule. In the fourteen sales in this archive the underbidder was disclosed by the house only in part, as when Sotheby's said the Botticelli under-bidder acted for an Asian collector. The names that survive usually come from the losers themselves, especially museums and states with archives, appeals or ministers. **Is a private treaty price less reliable than a hammer price?** It has no second party behind it. A hammer price carries at least one rival bid one increment below it, whether or not that rival is named. The coffin of Nedjemankh at 3.5 million euros and the Gilgamesh Dream Tablet at 1,674,000 dollars were negotiated with nobody else asked, and both were later seized. ## Sources - [1] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, object record 437869, Velazquez, Juan de Pareja (ca. 1608-1670), accession 1971.86, Provenance tab. Read in full 18 September 2026 in the in-app browser after two 429 responses on the plain fetch. Source for the provenance line ending sale, Christie's, London, November 27, 1970, no. 110, to Wildenstein for The Met, and for the credit line and dimensions. - [2] The National Gallery, London, Research Centre Archive, item NGA27/24/17/15, Velasquez's Juan de Pareja: The One That Got Away, 1970. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the two copies of Geoffrey Agnew's account of the attempt to buy the picture for the National Gallery of Washington and the loss to Alec Wildenstein's bid for the Metropolitan Museum. - [3] The Seattle Times, $30.8 Million Gets Gates Closer Look At Da Vinci, 13 November 1994. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the 10 to 15 million dollar estimate, Christopher Burge's statement and the bidding war between Gates's representative and one from Milan's Cariplo Foundation. - [4] Los Angeles Times, Microsoft's Gates Revealed as Leonardo's Mystery Buyer, 13 November 1994. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the 30.8 million dollar figure, Gates's identification on the Saturday, and the under-bidder as Milan's Cariplo Foundation. - [5] The Archimedes Palimpsest Project, The History of the Archimedes Manuscript. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the sale at 2pm on 29 October 1998 at Christie's New York to an anonymous collector for 2,000,000 dollars, the deposit at the Walters, and the injunction sought by the Greek government and the Greek patriarch. - [6] Spencer P. M. Harrington, Archimedes Manuscript Sold, Archaeology 52:1, January/February 1999. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the 2.2 million dollar reported price, Judge Kimba Wood's ruling on title, the Greek consul general bidding up to 1.9 million dollars, and Evangelos Venizelos's statement. - [7] Sotheby's, lot 28, Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A., The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent's Rock, Bristol, Old Master and 19th Century Paintings Evening Auction, London, 2 July 2025, sale L25033. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the estimate of 200,000 to 300,000 pounds and the lot details; the result is behind a login. - [8] The Art Newspaper, GBP 500 Turner painting sells for almost GBP 2m in Sotheby's Old Master sale, 4 July 2025. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the hammer of 1.5 million pounds, 1.9 million with fees, the UK private buyer, and Julian Gascoigne's count of five active bidders. - [9] Museums + Heritage Advisor, Bristol museums trust outbid at Turner auction despite crowdfund success, 3 July 2025. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the 109,120 pounds from more than 1,700 donations, the trust's statement that it was outbid, the refunds and the loan enquiry. - [10] Sotheby's, newsflash, Sandro Botticelli's Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel sells for record $92.2 million at Sotheby's New York, 28 January 2021. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the 92.2 million total, the estimate in excess of 80 million, the previous Botticelli record and the ultimate under-bidder bidding on behalf of an Asian collector. - [11] The Art Newspaper, Botticelli portrait sells for record $92.1m at Sotheby's in New York, 28 January 2021. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the 80 million dollar hammer, the 92.1 million total, the thin bidding from 78 to 80 million, Lilija Sitnika against Alex Bell, and the spokeswoman's identification of the underbidder as an Asian collector. - [12] Sotheby's, lot 1, Codex Sassoon, Circa 900, Land of Israel or Syria, sale Codex Sassoon: The Earliest Most Complete Hebrew Bible, New York, 17 May 2023. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the estimate of 30 to 50 million dollars, the Irrevocable Bids and Guaranteed Property symbols, and the note that the auctioneer may bid up to but not at the amount of the irrevocable bid. - [13] Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Codex Sassoon acquired for ANU Museum of the Jewish People for $38.1 million, 17 May 2023. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the gavel price of 33.5 million dollars, the 38.1 million total with fees, the handful of bidders and the sale of under six minutes. - [14] Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Alfred Moses bought an ancient Hebrew Bible for $30 million, 1 June 2023. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the irrevocable bid of 32.5 million dollars lodged before the sale and the rival bid of 33 million that Moses topped at 33.5. - [15] The Art Newspaper, Kitchen Cimabue sells for 24.1m euros, 27 October 2019. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the 19.5 million euro hammer, Giovanni Sarti bidding to around 15 million, and the final contest between a contemporary art gallery from Brussels and Ortenzi of Moretti. - [16] Essential Vermeer, The Concert by Johannes Vermeer, catalogue entry. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the provenance line Thore-Burger sale, Paris, 5 December 1892, no. 31, to Robert for Gardner, and the inventory P21W27. Used because the Gardner Museum's own page could not be opened. - [17] Journal of Art in Society, Vermeer's Concert, the Gardner Collection and the Art Heist of the Century. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for Gardner's use of a male agent signalled with a handkerchief and the competition from the National Gallery and the Louvre. Secondary; gives the price as 6,000 dollars, a later conversion. - [18] The Art Newspaper, Met hands over an Egyptian coffin that it says was looted, 15 February 2019. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the purchase of the coffin of Nedjemankh from the Paris dealer Christophe Kunicki for 3.5 million euros and the forged 1971 export licence. - [19] United States Department of Justice, press release 21-922, United States Returns to Iraq Rare Tablet Bearing Portion of Epic of Gilgamesh, archived copy. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the 2014 private sale by the auction house to Hobby Lobby, the employee who carried the tablet from London, and the forfeiture consented to on the ground of illegal importation. - [20] Mieks Faberge Eggs, 2007 Sale of the Rothschild Faberge Clock Egg, reproducing the Bloomberg report of 28 November 2007. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the 8 million pound hammer, the 8.98 million total after commission, and Andrei Ruzhnikov's statement that there were only two bidders and his refusal to say whether he was the underbidder. - [21] Associated Press via The Christian Science Monitor, Carpet from 17th century sells for $33.7 million at auction, 6 June 2013. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the anonymous bidder, the previous record of 9.6 million dollars and the statement that the price includes the auction house's premium. - [22] NPR, Magna Carta Copy Sells at Auction for $21.3 Million, 18 December 2007. Read in full 18 September 2026. Source for the 21.3 million dollar total to David Rubenstein and his plan to keep the document at the National Archives; no underbidder is named.