Sotheby's and Artsy to Collaborate

The NY Times is reporting on a collaboration between Sotheby's and Artsy for an online app based contemporary art sale. The sale will include art which includes technology and works will be values at $50,000.00 and below. The article notes this is the second online platform Sotheby's has partnered with to increase its online profile, the first being earlier this year when if joined forces with eBay.

The NY Times reports

Sotheby’s will collaborate on an online-only sale of contemporary art with the start-up Artsy, a search engine and database that will take bids via its website and iPad or iPhone apps.

The sale, in late October, will focus on artists who employ technology as a central component of their work, either conceptually or as part of their process, and will include painting, sculpture, video and photography, the companies said. Richard Prince, Cory Arcangel and Jeff Elrod are among the artists whose works Sotheby’s and Artsy will be seeking; the works on offer will be valued at $50,000 or less.

Artsy will help Sotheby’s use “the intersection of art and technology to engage new audiences,” David Goodman, the executive vice president for digital development and marketing at Sotheby’s, said in a statement.

For Artsy, which was founded in 2009 and made available to the public in 2012 and counts the gallery owner Larry Gagosian and Google’s executive chairman Eric E. Schmidt among its investors, the event is its first sale with a major auction house. Artsy said it has counted 18 million visits since it began.

Sotheby’s, seeking to expand Internet sales, joined eBay this year in a partnership that would bring its own auctions live online to eBay’s 155 million users worldwide; in the first half of 2015, the auction house said collectors bidding online had increased 55 percent, but it does not report on the individual sale level through online, phone or room bidders.

Sebastian Cwilich, the president and chief operating officer of Artsy, said, “Bringing leading auction houses onto Artsy is a natural extension of our platform.”

While its Art Genome Project encourages education and exploration, Artsy is also trying to expand as a source of discovery for collectors: The company said it had recently facilitated a $1.4 million sale between a gallery in Britain and a collector in the United States through its iPad app, but would not provide further details for publication.

Source: The NY Times