Elite auction house Sotheby’s and ecommerce giant Ebay plan to team up to broadcast live auctions of fine art and antiques and woo the dollars.
Sotheby’s and eBay announced the collaboration on July 14. Now 145 million users of Ebay will be able to partake in live auctions visiting a new website section. At first, some auctions will be broadcasted live from the New York headquarters. The broadcasting of Sotheby’s online-only sales and auctions in London, Geneva, Paris and Hong Kong is supposed to take place in prospect.
The partnership will not cover ordinary evening Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art auctions where bidders compete for offerings worth tens of millions of dollars. The price will range between 5,000 and 100,000 U.S. dollars. It can be jewelry, watches, wine, rear photos, and collectible souvenirs.
Sotheby’s as well as its main rival Christie’s has already had an experience of online trades. But the cooperation with the online retailer gives it an advantage as Sotheby’s gets access to digital technologies, integral payment systems and online marketing opportunities eBay has.
Sotheby’s has made attempts to team up with online retailers. In 1999, the auction house partnered with Amazon, in early 2000s it opted for eBay. Both partnerships fizzled in less than a year. But now it is high time for the online art market. According to the joint press release, as the technologies advance and mobile trades are getting more popular, collectors increasingly prefer buying exclusive items online using their mobile devices.
In accordance with statistics provided by The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF), online sales of art and antique items came in at 2.5 billion euros (or 3.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2013. That accounts only for 5% of the market. TEFAF expects the online art market to grow at least 25% a year and reach 13 billion dollars by 2020. The Hiscox Online Art Trade Report 2014 writes that future generations of collectors will be able to purchase art online without prior examination. That is the way 40% of the polled people by Hiscox buy art items, while 56% of respondents still physically collect them from sellers. Thus, online art market will exist along with the art galleries and auction houses, it says.
