Digital art sales enhance luxury ecommerce

Entrepreneurs are betting that the market is ready for seven figure online art sales as the art market is once again heating up. This weekend, the VIP Art Fair will debut – it’s an online only event with works from icons such as Francis Bacon, Jackson Pollock, and Damien Hirst. According to the Wall Street Journal (“Clicking on a Masterpiece”) almost 140 galleries from 30 countries are participating, many the biggest names in the art world. The precedent was set with a $3.3 million sale of a Shang dynasty wine vessel at a Christie’s auction with online bidding. 

The reasons given for holding this event are a desire to appeal out to a younger, more tech-savvy audience, who are comfortable buying online and to reach the largest geographic dispersion of potential buyers as possible – especially newly minted millionaires and billionaires outside of the usual art/auction locales of New York, London and Tokyo.  And gallerists must be exultant by the prospect of saving on booth and shipping costs.

However, since these will be costly, multi-million dollar purchases, buyers will have to contact the dealers to arrange a sale. This sounds like an effective business model for super high-end online sales, combining effective use of technology with interpersonal contact. I can definitely see this working for art, maybe not right away in this first auction, but certainly this year. If the artist and the gallery are well established, why not?