About Us
Adams is an innovative, dynamic auction house with a specialization in modern art, avant-garde, rare books & prints, and photography. Focusing on themed auctions dedicated to a single art collection, we strive to create unique, personal and compelling auction events. Twice a year, usually in June and in December, we also hold diverse multi-consignor auctions in cooperation with the leading Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. We are always open for consignments be it a single item or an entire collection.
Recent Highlights
















































Past Auctions
Since its foundation in 2009, Adams has conducted quite a few extraordinary sales. Recently we have organized an auction of more than 500 pieces from the estate of Frans Molenaar - Holland's most famous fashion designer, who was a passionate collector of art and design. The auction was a great success, attracting a lot of media attention and gaining 3,5 times more than estimated.
An important sale of fine and rare books, ‘Books from the Castle of Rosendael, from the Collections of Van Hulthem, Talleyrand, Masséna and other great properties’, was held in March 2015. The greater part of the collection came from the noble family that owned the castle of Rosendael (the Netherlands) and the eldest books had been in the same hands for over 400 years!
Supporting a literature project, Adams also held a charity auction for the biography of Boudewijn Büch. Moreover, we conducted sales from the private archives of the Dutch photographers Nico Koster and Vincent Mentzel as well as an auction of more than 1000 private belongings of the famous Dutch writer and painter Jan Cremer. The sale of the manuscript of his legendary novel ‘Ik Jan Cremer’ was broadcasted live on television. Other important pieces sold by Adams include the Blaeu town atlas for € 340.000 and Het Grachtenhuis (The Canal House) in Amsterdam for € 6.000.000.
Auction Stories

Photographs at Auction : From Eva Besnyö’s Little boy with cello to the Mortuary from Damien Hirst
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Painting from thrift store brings € 30,000 at auction
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NRC VEILINGEN 10 ! An unexpectedly lavish anniversary auction
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Auction record for Floris Verster
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Sale of the canal house Herengracht 386
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A set of La Dolce Vita by Adams Amsterdam Auctions
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Adams sells the manuscript of the novel ‘I Jan Cremer’
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Hugo Claus’ mythical Love Song
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Emo Verkerk sells for record price at NRC auction
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First NRC auction of books and prints
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In June 2013 Adams sold the archive of Jan Cremer. The auction was online - but what does Cremer actually think about the internet? This short video by Klaas Koppe gives an answer.
Take a look behind the scenes of our pre-auction research: the making of 3D scans of an original plaster model of The Destroyed City by Ossip Zadkine. The research done by Vivianne Veenemans and Tony Beentjes helped us prove the authenticity of the sculpture as well as its initial position in the genesis of Zadkine’s magnum opus. As a result, the Musée Zadkine decided to officially add the sculpture, previously unknown to them, to the artist's oeuvre.