| Report by Rachel
Le Goff
Sotheby's re-designed website offering online auctions was launched Tuesday
evening (11.01.00) from their plush New York headquarters. The old website
was much in the same style as that of rival auction house Christies.com
- designed to appeal to people that they already knew (collectors,
dealers, galleries). Sothebys.com's 1999 version emphasized its blockbuster
auctions of old master, impressionist and modern art reviewing sales which
took place in real auction rooms world-wide . The new website had to be
completely re-invented to accommodate online auction bidding and re-written
to address new, perhaps first time bidders. Sotheby's have to learn
to talk to a type of client unlike any that have ever dared to step foot
into the hallowed halls of Bond Street : the internet bidder.
Whilst the well-heeled and well-oiled will still flock to wage battle in
the arena of real auction rooms, they are a tiny 'clique' dwarfed
by the potential spending power of millions of internet clickers.
Under a special
channel entitled "Sotheby's Connoisseur: The Art of Collecting" didactic
guides inform the clickers 'how to collect antique silver' and their
'insider's guide to collecting Old Masters' is a daring attempt to initiate
the innocent into the most fickle and problematic sector of the auction
world. The guide, enticingly titled "Pictures of a Golden Age" tempts
the initiate with tales of instant fortune. The message is "bring us your
dirty old canvas from the attic, it could be a Rembrandt". Matters such
as provenance, authorship, signatures and aesthetic appeal are covered
in a few paragraphs. Reference links offer help with glossary and terms
but it is hardly a tutorial adequate enough to hunt down lost masterpieces.
On the other hand, it is perhaps enough to convince the initiate he
or she could take the plunge and acquire an Old Master.
The first Old Master
sale online offers 77 lots but the webmaster has a few things to iron
out first...
The photographs
of their 'featured lots' are appallingly scanned and in some cases no author
accompanies the image, just a picture title. Whereas Sotheby's would photograph
every lot themselves that goes into a printed catalogue for a regular sale,
it would seem that the webmaster is scanning poor quality images submitted
by the owners, wonky frames and all. Sothebys needs to present quality
images of every lot before it can expect web-viewers to get enthusiastic.
A pity to spend millions on the new website and to ignore the quality of
images.
Auction etiquette has had to change too. Signed-up dealers now submit
items for sale on Sothebys.com and ownership is publicized. Printed catalogues,
particularly of paintings, are paragons of discretion with lots announced
as 'property of a gentleman' but never 'property of Adelson Galleries,
New York' unless mentioned discreetly in the provenance details. As a spin
off from exposure on Sothebys.com dealers obviously hope to shepherd new
collectors to their own galleries.
One
advantage Sothebys.com has over other online auction sites like e-Bay
is that the items offered for sale are exhibitied at premises across
the globe prior to the internet sale. New bidders may fear making a
fool of themselves in the auction room but using Sothebys.com they can
safely go and examine the lots for sale then bid in cosy anonymity at home
from their laptop.
Among the items currently waiting for your bid online are a still-life
French eighteenth century oil starting at $20,000: Andy Warhol's 'Painting
Heart' 1979 dedicated to Halston (synthetic polymer on canvas 35 x 26 cm)
a snip at $16,000: a Grand piano made in 1910 with Louis XV-style gilt-bronze
ormolu mounts, the case inlaid with marquetry by Francois Linke with
an estimate of $350/450,000: a Japanese lacquer incense burner est.
$3,500-5,000 and the pièce de resistance, an original printed
copy of the American Declaration of Independence estimated to hit around
$4-6 million.
© ARTnewsroom.com
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