Responsibility
Responsibility, without the brochure
What does responsibility mean for a brokerage?
Operating policy with teeth, applied at the moment it costs something. Anyone can fund a gala; the test of a transaction business is which transactions it declines. The table below is the policy set we work to — each line enforced per mandate, not aspirationally.
| Area | The policy | In practice |
|---|---|---|
| Art provenance | No works with unresolved title, looting, or restitution exposure | Provenance research before any offer; gaps surfaced, not papered over |
| Exotic materials | CITES documentation or no mandate | Croc, alligator, lizard pieces verified to their certificates; reconstruction coordinated where legitimate |
| Clean money | KYC, sanctions screening, source-of-funds inquiry | Traceable banking and escrow only; cash is declined, always |
| Counterparties | Both sides screened, not just ours | A qualified buyer is also a screened buyer |
| Circularity | Pre-owned first, honestly compared | The brokerage market extends asset lives; we say so when pre-owned beats new-build |
| Craft | Respect for the hands that make these objects | Authentication standards that protect craftsmanship's value against counterfeits |
Policies stated as practiced — no certifications are claimed that have not been earned, and no donations are advertised that have not been made.
Why is provenance ethics the core of it?
Every category we touch has a dark version of itself: looted art, undocumented exotics, watches that vanished from a safe, aircraft with creative ownership chains. The same verification discipline that protects our clients' money keeps the office out of those markets — one process, two duties. A provenance gap is sometimes the whole answer, and the answer is no.
How is discretion different from opacity?
The distinction this entire firm balances on: we protect clients' privacy absolutely, and we protect the system's integrity at the same time. Know-your-client identification at engagement, sanctions screening of counterparties, source-of-funds questions proportionate to the transaction, payment exclusively through traceable banking and escrow. A client who finds those questions offensive has told us something useful early.
Why is pre-owned the sustainable choice?
The most environmentally honest thing this office does is unglamorous: it makes the secondary market work properly. Every documented pre-owned airframe that sells is a new build that waited; every authenticated vintage watch outlives fashion; every estate collection placed carefully avoids the skip. We routinely advise that pre-owned beats new — against our own short-term interest.
Karlín, our corner of it
The office sits in Main Point Karlín, a building that proved sustainable design and serious business belong together — river-water cooling, daylight architecture, and a neighborhood that rebuilt itself from the 2002 floods into Prague's most considered business district. We chose it deliberately, and as the firm grows, its community commitments will be made here first and published here only once they are real.
Frequently asked questions
Will Passion Asset Advisory handle undocumented exotic leathers?
No. Crocodile, alligator, lizard, and other exotic materials trade under CITES; a piece without its documentation does not enter a mandate — as buyer-side acquisition, seller-side consignment, or advisory valuation. Where documentation can be legitimately reconstructed through the issuing authorities, we coordinate that work instead.
What anti-money-laundering practices does the office apply?
Know-your-client identification at engagement, sanctions-list screening of counterparties, source-of-funds inquiry proportionate to the transaction, payments through traceable banking and escrow only — never cash — and the standing willingness to decline a mandate that cannot answer ordinary questions. Discretion protects privacy, never opacity.
What does corporate responsibility mean for a private brokerage?
Not a brochure of donations — operating policies with teeth: refusing art with unresolved provenance, declining exotic-leather pieces without CITES documentation, screening counterparties against sanctions lists, asking source-of-funds questions even when they cost a mandate, and extending the life of rare assets by making the pre-owned market work properly.
Where is the office based?
In Main Point Karlín — Karlín's award-winning business center — at Pobřežní 620/3, Prague 8, ten minutes from Prague's old town. Meetings are by appointment, in Prague or wherever the asset and the client are; mandates are executed worldwide under the same confidentiality discipline.
Responsibility
The mandates we decline are part of the service.
If your asset and your questions can stand ordinary scrutiny — and almost all can — the office is at your disposal.