As we adjust to the fast-moving situation around coronavirus, our focus is to do all that we can to support auction houses and enable them to continue to run sales online.
I wanted to highlight a number of steps that we are taking:
■ Keeping the ATG workforce safe and able to work by introducing enhanced hygiene measures both for staff and visitors
■ We have fully tested our contingency plan and if we are faced with a situation where all of our employers are forced to work from home, we will remain fully functional
■ Monitoring the government’s official advice on holding public gatherings. We are committed to supporting auctioneers with any communications they need to make around changes to auction formats or dates
■ Being ready to change auction format to remote/timed auction. Should live auctions become challenging or impossible to run because of restrictions on public gatherings, we can assist auctioneers by switching the format of their auctions to timed or live online only. We can also assist in communicating such changes to registered bidders
We are monitoring this situation very closely and will announce further updates as required.
Richard Lewis
Chief Operating Officer
Auction Technology Group
