Skip to content

Insurance broker / Business types / Retail and wholesale

Insurance for auction houses and auctioneers in Germany

An auction house keeps other people's valuables, describes them in public and sells them on their behalf. Paintings, jewellery, watches and furniture can sit in your store and viewing rooms for weeks. For auctioneers that means two kinds of liability: for the goods in your care and for what your catalogue says. This page explains which insurance fits and what it costs.

Insurance for auction houses and auctioneers

The question almost everyone asks first

Who pays if a consigned painting is damaged in our store?

You are liable to the consignor as the party holding the item. For the item itself you need contents insurance that names third party property in your care, at the agreed value. Standard public liability often excludes damage to goods you hold for others. Sort this out before the first consignment arrives.

What goes wrong in this trade

  1. 01

    Valuables in store

    Consignments stay with you for weeks. Fire, a burst pipe or burglary hits items you must replace.

  2. 02

    Theft at viewings

    Many visitors, small items, open cabinets: a ring or a watch vanishes in seconds.

  3. 03

    Collection and delivery

    Furniture, porcelain and paintings are collected, stored and delivered. Every move risks breakage.

  4. 04

    Wrong attribution

    A painting sold as the work of a master later turns out to be studio work: buyers want their money back and costs paid.

  5. 05

    Online bidding

    Live bidding depends on technology. An attack or outage on sale day costs hammer prices.

  6. 06

    Accidents in the saleroom

    Visitors trip over cables or platforms, or a heavy piece tips over during viewing.

Risk radar
Liability 4Fire and water 5Theft 5Cyber 3Downtime 3Health 2

Compared with other trades, 1 low to 5 high.

The insurance you need

Essential

Business contents

Replaces your fittings and consigned third party items after fire, water, storm and burglary, if third party property is included with a value.

Business liability

For injury and property damage at viewings, sales and collections, for example if a visitor falls.

Strongly advised

Cargo insurance

For items in transit from consignor to store and on to the buyer, including fairs and exhibitions.

Professional indemnity

Covers financial loss from wrong descriptions, valuations or handling, which public liability does not pay.

Cyber insurance

For attacks on online bidding, customer data and payments.

Depends on the business

What it costs: example prices

The premium depends mainly on the value held at any one time, security and storage. Liability is the smaller part.

InsuranceExampleTypical range
Business liabilityAuctioneer with own saleroom, four sales a yearabout €300 to €800 a year
Business contentsConsignments and fittings up to €500,000, alarm and safeabout €1,500 to €4,000 a year
Cargo insuranceCollections and deliveries in own vehicle, up to €50,000 per tripabout €400 to €1,200 a year
Professional indemnityFinancial loss from descriptions and valuations, €250,000 coverabout €500 to €1,500 a year
Cyber insuranceAuction house with online bidding and customer databaseabout €600 to €1,500 a year

For comparison: Contents, liability and transit together often cost a small auction house less a year than the commission on one good lot.

All figures are guide figures from our own quoting work, excluding German insurance premium tax,

as of October 2026.

For high single values, insurers often set security requirements and ask for a separate valuation.

Sources of the price examples

Our suggestions: three packages

01

Auctioneer

For: Auctioneer without own store, sales in rented rooms

  • Business liability
  • Professional indemnity
  • Cargo insurance

Together about €1,200 to €3,500 a year

Request this package

02

Auction house

For: Own saleroom and store, consignments up to €500,000

  • Business contents
  • Business liability
  • Cargo insurance
  • Professional indemnity

Together about €2,700 to €7,500 a year

Request this package

03

Saleroom and online

For: Auction house with live bidding, high single values and exhibitions

  • Business contents
  • Business liability
  • Cargo insurance
  • Professional indemnity
  • Cyber insurance
  • Business interruption
  • Business legal expenses

Together priced individually, usually from about €7,500 a year

Request this package

The worst day in the auction house

Six things that really happen to auctioneers, all on the day of a big sale here. Tap through and see who pays.

Damage so far€75,300
  1. Unloading, a chest of drawers falls off the pallet truck; a leg snaps and the veneer splinters.

    €4,500 · Paid by: Cargo insurance

  2. During the viewing a gold ring disappears from a cabinet.

    €6,800 · Paid by: Business contents

  3. A visitor trips over a cable by the platform and breaks an arm.

    €9,000 · Paid by: Business liability

  4. The online bidding platform is attacked and goes down for two hours.

    €18,000 · Paid by: Cyber insurance

  5. A buyer proves an attributed painting is not by the named artist and claims costs.

    €12,000 · Paid by: Professional indemnity

  6. A pipe bursts above the store and several consigned prints are soaked.

    €25,000 · Paid by: Business contents

Which package would you have had?

Paid by insurance: €0
Out of your own pocket: €75,300

Illustrative amounts before any excess.

What is paid depends on the policy terms.

Practical tips from your broker

  1. Have third party property in your care named in your contents insurance, with a sufficient sum.
  2. State in the consignment contract who insures items from delivery onwards and at what value.
  3. Check the limits for jewellery, watches and cash; they are often tight.
  4. Include financial loss from descriptions and valuations; property insurance does not cover it.
  5. Insure transit even when you collect items yourself, not just with carriers.
  6. Protect online bidding with backups and cyber insurance before you go live.

Why NAMMERT for your business

We compare for you

Norman Nammert works as an independent insurance broker. We approach several insurers and make sure consigned goods are really included.

We know valuables in transit

From our work with high value items we know how much agreed values, transit and storage location matter in a policy.

Family run since 1989

We have arranged insurance since 1989. Our work is free for you; the insurer pays our commission.

Frequently asked questions

Questions and answers

Do I need a licence to run auctions in Germany?

Yes.

Anyone auctioning other people's movable goods,

land or rights as a business needs a permit from the competent authority under § 34b GewO.

Are consigned items covered by my insurance?

Only if your contents insurance names third party property in your care.

Watch the sum insured and the limits for jewellery and art.

How much does insurance for an auction house cost?

From our quoting work, a small house with its own store pays about €2,700 to €7,500 a year for

contents, liability, transit and financial loss cover.

Who pays for a wrong attribution?

That is financial loss.

Only professional indemnity covers it, not public liability or contents.

May I bid at my own auction?

No.

§ 34b GewO bans auctioneers from bidding themselves or through others,

and from buying items entrusted to them.

Do I need cyber insurance for online auctions?

It is not compulsory.

If bids and payments run online, it pays costs after attacks and data breaches.

NAMMERT insurance broker

Request quotes for Auction house

The recommended covers are ticked.

Change what does not fit; we compare quotes, in English.

1Who is it for?
2Which insurance?

Choose as many as you like. For each one, the details an insurer needs for a quote appear below.

Personal

Business

3Details

Business liability insurance in Germany (Betriebshaftpflicht)

For example electrical installation in homes, café with outdoor seating, online shop for furniture

For example work at clients' sites, own products, exports to the US, parent company abroad

Professional indemnity insurance in Germany (Berufshaftpflicht)

For example tax adviser with payroll, freelance software developer,

architect for residential buildings

For example current policy abroad, clients in the US, side activities,

expiry date of existing cover

Business contents insurance in Germany (Inhaltsversicherung)

For example café with bakery, accounting firm, car repair shop

At purchase price, 0 if no stock

For example flood cover, customer property, tools in vehicles, loss of income

Cargo and transport insurance in Germany

Only for hauliers and own-account transport

For example Incoterms, ADSp, packing, storage, previous claims

Cyber insurance for businesses in Germany

Rule of thumb: cost of three to four weeks of downtime plus recovery

4Your current policy
5How can we reach you?

Related trades

Antiques

Antiques

How do I insure stock whose value nobody knows exactly?

Pawnshop

Pawnshop

Is it enough to insure the pledges for the amount I have lent?

Jeweller

Jeweller

Is ordinary contents insurance enough for my jewellery?

Conservator

Conservator

Will my liability insurance pay if I damage the paint layer while cleaning?

Boat or yacht? NAMMERT has its own cover concepts for boats, arranged by the same broker.

Boat insurance

Your broker: Norman Nammert, trading as NAMMERT.

Insurance broker licensed under section 34d(1) of the German Trade Regulation Act.

Broker register no. D-C08Q-TOSD4-37.

NAMMERT Assekuradeur GmbH is a separate company.

It does not arrange your contract.

Statutory disclosure (German) · Updated