Legal & Privacy
Privacy Policy
Effective January 1, 2021
Goupil & Cie’s group of companies (“Goupil & Cie” or “we” or “us” or “our”) value the trust that you place in us by sharing your personal data with us. As a trusted international merchant house dedicated to art and collectibles with online and offline activities including auction, sales, consignment and related services (collectively referred to herein as “Services”), we will take all reasonable steps to protect your personal information from misuse and keep it secure. To this end, please take a moment to carefully read the following Privacy Policy (the “Policy”) as well as our Cookie Policy that explains how we collect, use, disclose, transfer and protect the personal information that you provide to us as a “user”, “client” or “data subject” on our websites and mobile applications (together referred to herein as the “Website”) when you create and/or use an online account with us, visit our point-of-sales, register and/or attend our online or physical events, contact us by telephone, interact with us over social media platforms, or sign up for our print or online publications, magazines or newsletters.
In conjunction with this Policy and Cookie Policy, you must also read the Terms of Use of our Website and applicable Conditions of Sale which will govern the terms and conditions of any purchases to be made with us.
In this Policy, “Personal Data” refers to any data, whether true or not, about an identified or identifiable natural person who can be identified from that data; or from that data and other information to which we have or are likely to have access, including data in our records as may be updated from time to time.
In accordance with the purposes and the legal grounds set out in sections 4 and 5 of this Policy, we collect and use the following types of Personal Information:
- Identification data including for instance: email address, username and password.
- Personal details including for instance: first name, last name, date of birth, identification documents, postal address, proof of address documents, relation to an organisation and personal details that are publicly available.
- Communication details, preferences and correspondences including for instance: postal address, email address, telephone numbers, communication preferences, newsletter preferences, records of your correspondences with us through any medium (letter, email, telephone, online), feedback, survey answers and complaints.
- Financial details including for instance: bank account information, bank transfer information, credit card information and source of funds.
- Details regarding the consigned property and evidence of authenticity and provenance including for instance: property details, such as the characteristics of the property, proof of ownership, ownership history, provenance documents, details of the investigation, observations and results given by an external professional regarding the authenticity, provenance and valuation of the property, and insurance details in relation to the property.
- Transactional data including for instance: purchasing history, bidding history, payment details, tax paid/withheld, shipment details, details of the property you purchased or on which you bid.
- Commercial and marketing interests and information and preferences including for instance: interests in a particular property or category of properties, interests in our services, interests in the courses that we offer, customer service information and marketing preferences.
- Information related to activity on the internet including for instance: IP address, browser type, operating system, activity on our Website, information collected by logs, cookies and similar technologies.
- Information collected in order to ensure the safety of our staff and the security of our premises including for instance: CCTV recordings.
Please note the examples of personal data mentioned above do not represent an exhaustive list.
Information we collect from you ― Most of the Personal Data that is processed by us is directly provided by you, whether when interacting with us in person, online, by email, over the phone, through letters or when completing forms.
You provide us with such information, for example, when you:
- create an account on our Website;
- update or complete your account;
- use our online auctions and sales platform;
- register for an auction or for a sale;
- request an estimate or an appraisal;
- consign an item;
- register for one of our courses;
- request one of our Services;
- subscribe to our newsletters;
- subscribe to our catalogues;
- notify us of your interest in a property;
- attend one of our events;
- communicate with us.
Information we collect from other sources ― We may collect data about you from external sources, when we find such public information or when someone introduces you to us.
Information we collect automatically ― We collect information about you, your device and your usage, when you visit our Website, in order to operate it correctly, improve and monitor its performance and security, to provide you with a tailored navigation experience and to make advertisements more relevant to your interests. We use cookies and other similar technologies to collect such data. For more information on our use of cookies, please refer to our Cookie Policy.
Online and telephone communications, including when bidding via these media, may be recorded.
We may carry out video recordings at our events or at our premises for security or live broadcast purposes.
We collect, use and store Personal Data for the following purposes:
- to manage your access to our Website;
- to provide you with any Service you requested and to process your orders;
- to perform identity and financial checks;
- to perform authenticity and provenance checks, including the establishing and maintaining of transaction records;
- to build up an art market database containing information about the authenticity and provenance of artworks;
- to inform you about our auctions, sales, events, Services and any property you are interested in or that may interest you;
- to provide you with targeted advertising that is relevant to your interests;
- to provide you with customer assistance and to answer any of your questions;
- to improve our Website and our Services;
- to maintain our business records;
- to comply with our legal requirements, such as KYC and anti-money laundering checks, to keep proof of this and to assist public authorities when required;
- to prevent harm, fraud and illegal activities;
- to protect the safety of our staff and to guarantee the security of our premises;
- to resolve disputes and to defend Goupil & Cie’s, your or third parties’ rights and interests;
- to consult professional advisors (e.g., lawyers, tax consultants, insurance agents) or public authorities to request recommendations regarding our rights and obligations.
We rely on the following lawful basis in order to collect, use and store your Personal Data:
- you gave us your consent to process your Personal Information;
- we must process your Personal Data to perform a contract with you and/or, upon your request, prior to entering into a contract with you;
- we must process your Personal Information to fulfil our legal obligations;
- processing your Personal Data is necessary for our legitimate interests or for the ones of a third party, but only when these interests are not overridden by your own rights and freedoms.
We have legitimate interests in running and developing its commercial activities, operating its Website and ensuring its security, performing authenticity and provenance checks, maintaining transactions and business records, and preventing fraud. When we use your Personal Data on this basis, we take additional precautions to ensure that your own privacy interests are well preserved.
We take appropriate and reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data and to ensure the security of processing systems and services against unauthorised or unlawful use, alteration, unauthorised access or disclosure, accidental or wrongful destruction, and loss.
Access to your data by our employees or by third parties is strictly limited to those who need it to perform a specific task. In addition, we provide our staff with training to ensure that they understand our security commitments and privacy policy and are aware of their obligations in this regard. Technical means we employ to preserve your Personal Information including but not limited to the use of passwords, encryption, antivirus and firewalls.
While we are committed to make reasonable efforts to protect your personal data and its confidentiality, and ensure the security of processing systems and services, you remain responsible for the secure transmission of your information across the internet and for ensuring that your password and username are kept confidential and not shared with anyone.
We do not share personal information about you with other people or entities which are not part of Goupil & Cie except under the following circumstances:
- Third parties ― Your Personal Data may be shared with other organisations when necessary to conduct our business, to provide our Services or to operate our Website. These third parties include advertising and marketing partners, analytics partners, auction partners, authentication and valuation experts, data storage and cloud service providers, event hosts, financial institutions, insurers, payment processors, professional advisors, shipping agents, warehouses, Website technical and support service providers. The disclosure of Personal Information is strictly limited to the information necessary to perform a specific task and third parties are required to comply with the applicable law and with our Policy. Goupil & Cie does not disclose your Personal Data to other companies for their own marketing purposes. We may share your Personal Information with other companies within Goupil & Cie.
- Disclosure required by law ― We may disclose your Personal Data to the relevant agencies to satisfy legal compliance requirements or to investigate and prevent harm, fraud and illegal activities.
- Your personal information may be transferred to law enforcement entities when legally required to do so or to protect Goupil & Cie’s rights and interests.
- Changes of ownership or other major corporate events ― Goupil & Cie may also disclose your Personal Information in case of asset transfers, such as merger, acquisition, sale, financing, reorganisation or liquidation.
Goupil & Cie is a global company with cross-regional establishments. Please be informed that we may transfer, store and/or process any Personal Data you provide to us to countries other than your country of residence. The laws of these countries may not afford the same level of protection to your personal data. We will therefore seek to ensure that all adequate and reasonable safeguards are in place and that all applicable laws and regulations are complied with in connection with such transfers.
We will keep your Personal Data for no longer than what is necessary for the purposes set out in this Policy. We will retain your Personal Information as long as you have an active account and as long as necessary to provide you with our Services. We will also keep your Personal Information as long as permitted or required to comply with applicable law, to resolve disputes, to protect our rights and interests or to enforce this Policy.
The Website may contain hyperlinks to other websites that are not operated or monitored by us. These other websites are not subject to this Policy and we are not responsible for their content or for the policy they apply to the treatment of personal data. Your use of these links will be at your own risk. We strongly encourage you to read their privacy and cookie policies to understand how they collect and process your data.
Our Website and the Services offered there are not intended for natural persons under the age of eighteen (18). The use of our Website is prohibited to natural persons under the age 18. It is not our intention to collect or use or process personal information from natural persons under the age of 18 and we will not knowingly do so. If you believe we have collected information about a natural person under the age of 18, please contact us at enquiries@goupilauction.com so that we may take appropriate steps to delete such information. All requests will receive a response as swiftly as possible.
We use cookies and similar technologies (collectively referred herein as “cookies”) on our Website for statistical purposes, online advertising and to improve user experience. Cookies contains information about your visit of the Website, such as your activities and preferences as a user of our Website. They allow our Website to recognise whether you have visited it before and may store your preferences and other information to improve your browsing experience by remembering your option settings, tailoring relevant content display and ensuring website pages function as expected.
For more information about our use of cookies, please refer to our Cookie Policy.
You have certain rights with respect to the Personal Information we collect about you, including:
- Right of access – You are entitled to request that we grant you access to your Personal Information or copies thereof.
- Right to rectification – You are entitled to request the rectification of any Personal Information if inaccurate, incorrect or incomplete.
- Right to erasure – You are entitled, under certain circumstances, to request that we erase your Personal Information.
- Right to restriction of processing – You are entitled, under certain circumstances, to obtain the restriction of the processing of your Personal Information.
- Right to object to processing – You are entitled, under certain circumstances, to object to the processing of your Personal Information.
- Right to data portability – You are entitled, under certain circumstances, to request that we transfer your Personal Information to another organisation or to you.
In the event that you would like to exercise any of your above rights or if you have any questions regarding them, please contact us at enquiries@goupilauction.com. All requests will receive a response as swiftly as possible. Please, note that we may be entitled to decline your request if an exception applies, we will notify you in such cases.
For confidentiality and personal data protection purposes, your identity will be checked and verified in order to respond to your request. In case of reasonable doubts concerning your identity, you may be asked to provide a copy of your national ID or passport and any other potential identifying document along with your request.
We encourage you to frequently visit this Policy as we may update it at any time and without prior notice to you and at our sole discretion. In case of amendment to this Policy, the changes will be immediately applicable upon publication on the Website. Any changes will take effect on the “Effective” date posted at the top of this Policy webpage. If you do not agree to any such change, you must discontinue the access or use of the Website. By continuing the use of the Website following the posting of changes, you accept and agree to the changes.
If you have any enquiries or comments about this Policy or our Cookie Policy, or general privacy matters, do not hesitate to contact us at enquiries@goupilauction.com. All requests will receive a response as swiftly as possible.