How much commission does an art gallery take, and what does a platform cost?

01The gallery: most often half

In Belgium, Cultuurloket - the public contact point for people working in culture - puts it plainly: of a work sold through a gallery, half the sale price often goes to the artist and the other half to the gallery.

In practice: your painting goes for €800, you receive €400. That isn’t abuse, it’s the price of a space in the town centre, a hanging, an opening night, insurance and above all an address book you don’t have.

• What the gallery really brings: credibility, a physical space, clients who are already there, and someone who sells on your behalf.
• What it doesn’t do: pay you up front. Many hangings are on consignment, and you’re only paid after the sale, sometimes several weeks later.
• What it often asks for on top: exclusivity over a region, a period, or a type of work. Read that clause before you sign, it’s the one that bites.

A gallery that asks you to pay to exhibit isn’t a gallery, it’s a wall for rent. It exists, it’s legal, but it isn’t the same trade and it almost never sells.

02Online platforms: from 6.5 to 40%

The big online art marketplaces take a commission on every sale, sometimes topped up with a monthly subscription and promotion fees. The gap between them is huge, and the percentage on display isn’t always what you pay.

• The commission on the sale: that’s the figure in large print. It runs from 6.5% at Etsy to 40% at Saatchi Art. Several platforms, such as Singulart or Artmajeur, publish their rate nowhere: you only find out once you have signed up.
• The subscription: some charge you for exhibiting, sale or no sale. It’s a fixed cost that lands even in quiet months.
• Payment fees: between 1.5 and 3% of the transaction, plus around €0.25 each time. In Belgium, Bancontact is not charged as a percentage but at a flat rate, around €0.35, whatever the amount: on an €800 canvas that changes everything.
• Transport: if the platform ships, the packaging, the shipping and the insurance are on someone. Look closely at who.

To compare two platforms honestly, don’t compare the commissions. Compare what lands in your account after an €800 sale, all in.

03The only figure that matters: what lands in your account

Let’s take the same painting, listed at €800 everywhere, and look at what you have left.

• Gallery at 50%: you have €400 left.
• Platform at 30%, plus 2% payment fees: you have around €544 left.
• Platform at 15%, plus a €15 a month subscription: you have €680 left, minus €180 a year that you pay even without selling.
• Direct sale between you and the client: you have €800 left, minus your time, and with no protection at all if it goes wrong.

A low percentage isn’t enough. A platform that takes nothing but brings you nobody leaves you 100% of zero.

04arvel’s choice: 0% for the artist

arvel takes no commission from the artist. You set a price, and that price is what you receive, in full. The platform earns its keep on the client’s side, within the displayed price.

That isn’t generosity, it’s arithmetic. An artist who knows exactly what they will receive publishes more, publishes faster, and doesn’t have to recalculate the price to make up for a deduction. And an all-in displayed price avoids the nasty surprise on the last screen, the one that gets one basket in two abandoned.

arvel’s other choice: the works don’t travel. The handover happens in person, between the artist and the client. No packaging, no breakage, no transport costs to absorb into the price.

arvel isn’t open yet. Today the site lets you take your place on the waiting list, nothing more. We’d rather write it than let you guess.

05How to choose, in practice

• You haven’t sold to anyone outside your circle yet: the gallery is expensive but brings you the audience you don’t have. It’s worth its 50%.
• You already have an audience, even a small one, on social media: a low-commission platform earns you more, because you bring your own clients.
• You sell one or two paintings a year: steer clear of subscriptions. They’ll cost you more than they bring in.
• You want to live from your painting: don’t choose. The artists who get there are in a gallery, online and at markets all at the same time.