# /sothebys/private_sales/search

`POST /api/sothebys/private_sales/search`

Price: 20 credits

Search Sotheby's private-sale inventory, optionally within one private-sales category, by keyword, department, object type, creator and price. Returns listings with title, creators, price where published, currency, department, item attributes and image.

## How to use it

List Sotheby's private-sale works by category. Pass a listing's id to sothebys/shop/items for its full description, condition and shipping.

## Parameters

- `access-token` (string, required)

## Request body

- `timeout` (integer) — Max scrapping execution timeout (in seconds) (default: 300; min: 20; max: 1500)
- `category` (string, nullable) — Private-sales category to search within; omitted searches every private-sale item (one of: "contemporary-art", "impressionist-modern-art", "prints-multiples", "photographs", "american-art", "european-art", "20th-century-design", "jewelry", "watches", "sneakers-handbags", "books-manuscripts", "furniture-decorative-arts")
- `keyword` (string, nullable) — Search text (examples: "warhol"; minLength: 1)
- `departments` (array) — Sotheby's departments (default: []; one of: "19th Century European Paintings", "20th Century Design", "American Art", "American Furniture, Decorative Art & Folk Art", "Books & Manuscripts", "Chinese Export Porcelain", "Chinese Paintings – Classical", "Chinese Paintings – Modern", "Chinese Works of Art", "Clocks & Barometers", "Collectibles", "Contemporary Arab, Iranian & Turkish Art", "Contemporary Art", "Contemporary Asian Art", "Contemporary Latin American Art", "Contemporary NFT", "English Furniture", "European Ceramics & Glass", "European Sculpture & Works of Art", "French & Continental Furniture", "Impressionist & Modern Art", "Jewelry", "Latin American Art", "Luxury Collectibles", "Modern & Contemporary South Asian Art", "Modern Art | Asia", "Modern British & Irish Art", "Objects of Vertu", "Old Master Paintings", "Photographs", "Popular Culture", "Prints", "Science", "Silver", "Sneakers NFT", "Spirits", "Streetwear & Modern Collectibles", "Vintage Cars", "Watches", "Wine"; examples: ["Contemporary Art"])
- `object_types` (array) — Object types (default: []; one of: "Apparel", "Architectural & Garden", "Book", "Bracelet", "Brooch", "Car", "Clock", "Collectible", "Cufflink, Stud & Tie Clip", "Decor", "Dining & Serveware", "Earring", "Fossil", "Generic", "Handbag", "Jewelry", "Lighting", "Mineral", "Mixed Media", "Necklace", "Painting", "Pen", "Photograph", "Precious Accessory", "Print", "Ring", "Sculpture", "Seating", "Sneaker", "Spirit", "Storage", "Table", "Textile", "Vintage Poster", "Watch", "Wine", "Work on Paper"; examples: ["Painting"])
- `creators` (array) — Artist, maker or brand names as Sotheby's writes them (default: []; examples: ["Andy Warhol"])
- `min_price` (number, nullable) — Lowest price or low estimate, in the item's own currency (min: 0)
- `max_price` (number, nullable) — Highest price or low estimate, in the item's own currency (min: 0)
- `count` (integer, required) — Max number of items to return (min: 1; max: 3000)

## Response

### 200 — Successful Response

- `@type` (string) (default: "SothebysShopListing")
- `id` (string, required)
- `url` (string, nullable)
- `alias` (string, nullable)
- `sku` (string, nullable)
- `creators` (array) (default: [])
- `creators_display` (string, nullable)
- `description` (string, nullable)
- `sale_designation` (string, nullable)
- `department` (string, nullable)
- `categories` (array) (default: [])
- `object_types` (array) (default: [])
- `way_to_buy` (string, nullable)
- `sales_channel` (string, nullable)
- `sales_entity` (string, nullable)
- `lot_state` (string, nullable)
- `currency` (string, nullable)
- `price` (number, nullable)
- `is_price_published` (boolean, nullable)
- `estimate_low` (number, nullable)
- `estimate_high` (number, nullable)
- `available_quantity` (integer, nullable)
- `is_owned` (boolean, nullable)
- `is_enquiry_enabled` (boolean, nullable)
- `image` (string, nullable)
- `published_at` (integer, nullable)
- `tags` (array) (default: [])
- `ships_from_country` (string, nullable)
- `ships_from_state` (string, nullable)
- `ships_internationally` (boolean, nullable)
- `attributes` (array) (default: [])
  - `@type` (string) (default: "SothebysItemAttribute")
  - `name` (string, nullable)
  - `values` (array) (default: [])
  - `unit` (string, nullable)
- `variants` (array) (default: [])
  - `@type` (string) (default: "SothebysListingVariant")
  - `id` (string, nullable)
  - `sku` (string, nullable)
  - `value` (string, nullable)
  - `price` (number, nullable)

## Errors

### 422 — Validation Error

The request body did not validate

What to do: Check the fields against this schema. A URN with the wrong prefix is the most common cause.

- `detail` (array)
  - `loc` (array, required)
  - `msg` (string, required)
  - `type` (string, required)
  - `input` (any)
  - `ctx` (object)

### 408

The request ran past its time limit

What to do: Raise `timeout` in the request body, up to the maximum this endpoint documents. Lowering `count` or turning off the `with_*` flags also helps, because less work finishes sooner.

### 412

The entity was not found, or a precondition failed

What to do: Retrying will not help: either the entity does not exist, or the input points at a different one.

### 429

Too many requests: a rate limit or a usage window is exhausted

What to do: When the response carries an X-Retry-After header, wait that many seconds and retry: the same number is in the body as `detail.retry_after`, and the limit clears once that window passes. The message in the body names the limit that was hit.

### 500

Something broke on our side

What to do: Retrying will not help. If it keeps happening, send us the X-Request-ID from the response headers.

### 529

Rate limit reached, or the endpoint is overloaded

What to do: Wait at least 30 seconds, then retry.

## Response envelope

Success: Array of objects (may be empty if no results)

Error: Error may coexist with partial results if it occurs mid-execution. Check X-Error header and status code.

Every response carries these headers:

- `X-Error` — Error message text (present only on error)
- `X-Request-ID` — Unique request identifier
- `X-Execution-Time` — Execution time in seconds
- `X-Result-Count` — How many records the body carries. 0 means an empty result, which is a normal answer and not by itself an error. A non-zero count can come back together with X-Error when the failure happened partway through — read this header and X-Error independently.
- `X-Total-Available-Results` — How many records exist for this query, when the endpoint can say. On a `dry_run` request this is the answer and the body is empty. It saturates: the endpoint's documented maximum means 'at least that many', any smaller number is exact.
- `X-Warning` — Present when the request body carried keys this endpoint does not document. They were ignored, so any filter you meant to apply through them did not apply. Check the spelling against this schema and retry.
- `X-Retry-After` — Seconds to wait before retrying. Present only on 429.