Selling Selling through the Internet. A Blessing or a Curse?
By David Norden 23/03/2015 Even the 75,000 well-heeled clients at TEFAF in Maastricht would probably have to think twice before buying a fine Fang statue offered at the tempting price of €1.2 million; most people could never possibly aspire towards spending that much on artwork in a lifetime, let alone in a single purchase. But while the upper end of the market is certainly going meteoric, even the middle and lower ranges are spiraling upwards. The amount spent on lower-priced art on Internet fora is remarkable, while the average value of art objects bought online is increasing. Following my recent discovery and use of the Catawiki platform, I have been looking further into this and am struck by how like a ‘real’ auction this site behaves – people who viewed or bid on items in my auctions were automatically targeted to receive alerts for upcoming sales of related interest, thus promoting all levels of the art market. Feedback has been very positive; Catawiki is evidently a well financed and reliable operation, as is reflected in their recent rapid expansion. Read more about it here: http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/24/catawiki/ Established auction houses are jumping on the bandwagon. Sothebys’ decision to use the EBay auction platform for their high-end sales reflects just how much prestigious salerooms covet the large audiences currently enjoyed by e-auction sites. These collaborations are currently in their infancy, but who know – perhaps top art objects will soon be sold for tens of millions on the Internet. I feel a certain sense of satisfaction about this trend, which I foresaw when I launched my own online catalogue in 1998; wealthy clients are increasingly choosing not to be incommoded by visiting auction houses in person, and instead can bid on even the most elite of objects from the comfort of their own homes. While Christies and Sotheby’s have received a lot of press about this, other small auction houses and individual dealers (like me!) are also taking advantage of online platforms like Invaluable, Auctionata, LiveAuctioneer, Ebay, Catawiki, etc…to reach the same clients when the quality of the objects is guaranteed. Last year an ivory mask sold for €360,000 (despite a €510000 estimate), and a little auction house in France sold a Bakota for €600,000. While these examples are quite newsworthy, they are diagnostic of a wider trend in

which high-end results from previously unexpected sources are less and less exceptional, and are more and more the norm. According to the “Tefaf Art Market Report, the 2014 value of Internet Sales to the Art and Antiques market was conservatively estimated at €3.3 billion, around 6 % of the total online sales, and these numbers are set to increase. From personal observation and tracking of Internet sales results, I would surmise that while the Internet art market has previously been restricted to the low to mid-market range (between €1000 and €50,000), it is highly likely to soon encompass the full value range; this was tacitly confirmed by representatives of Sotheby’s during their presentation concerning their collaboration with Ebay. I am intent on ensuring that tribal art continues to play a major role in the development of the art market, and to that end I am about to submit a collection of pieces to Catawiki’s next Online Exclusive Tribal Art Auction. All the David Norden lots are estimated at €500+, and will be offered as of next Sunday, March 27th. The auction will run for nine days, ending on Sunday April 5th, at around 8 p.m. See some objects on the Facebook event page and confirm if you wish to participate: https://www.facebook.com/events/377852675732725/ The active link will be sent in a few days when the auction goes live. If you have any questions let me know. Hope to see you there ! David Norden