The contracts toolkit
What is a contract
Offer and acceptance
The offer must be in reasonable detail
An offer to buy a work will not be valid if no price is stated. If you accept an offer that is not valid, it will not be legally binding.
An offer is not the same as an invitation to you to make offers
When a gallery exhibits a work with a stated price the gallery is not making an offer, but inviting the public to offer to buy the work for the stated price. If an offer is made by a member of the public to buy the work, the offer can still be accepted or rejected.
An offer can always be withdrawn by the party who made it before it is accepted, but not afterwards
If a collector offers an artist £500 for a work and the artist does not respond, the collector can always withdraw the offer.
An offer is automatically cancelled by a counter-offer
If a collector offers an artist £250 for a print and the artist asks for £300, the original offer of £250 is automatically revoked. If the artist later decides to take the lower price of £250 the collector is entitled to say no as the earlier offer was automatically cancelled by the counter-offer.