Art Makes a Move Online

 

The art market — like just about every other realm of commercial life — is being transformed by the Internet. But how much is the digital revolution actually translating into more online purchases?

 

In 2013, global online art sales reached $1.57 billion, according to a report published last month by the London-based insurer Hiscox. The figure sounds impressive enough, until it’s compared with the 47.4 billion euros, or about $66 billion, of total sales generated by the world’s auction houses and dealers during the same period, according to the European Fine Art Foundation.

 

In other words, online sales, where works are both viewed and purchased through the same website, represent 2.4 percent of the art market. Barely a dent, compared to, say, the record music industry, where millions of songs are downloaded every day. But of course, a Taylor Swift mp3 is a lot cheaper and easier to access than a Damien Hirst spot painting.

 

“The Internet is good for selling prints and multiples,” said Banksy’s former dealer, Steve Lazarides, whose London gallery specializes in limited-edition works and paintings by street artists. “It’s difficult to sell one-off things online. You can’t replicate the X-factor of a painting on a website, and if you’re going to drop 50 grand on a work of art, you want to develop a relationship with the person selling it. You don’t want to just get out your credit card.”

 

Mr. Lazarides points out that once trust is established between buyers and sellers in the art market, the Internet can then drive higher-value sales, though these aren’t always formally categorized as online transactions.

 

“I sell between 70 to 80 percent of my paintings on the basis of high-res jpegs,” Mr. Lazarides said.

 

Every day, galleries and auction houses pitch hundreds of thousands of works to clients across the world over email. And the image-posting site Instagram has become the art world’s chosen medium for keeping up with the latest hot names and who’s selling them. This month, Loic Gouzer, a Christie’s New York-based specialist, used Instagram to promote his personally curated May 12 “If I Live I’ll See You Tuesday” auction of fashionable contemporaries. He and the company were rewarded that night with a sales total of $134.6 million, including 16 record prices for artists.

 

The marketing might be virtual, but most buyers of higher-value art still, at some point, want to view potential purchases in person and they prefer to bid at auction either by telephone or through a trusted agent in the salesroom. As yet, online bidding hasn’t been much of a factor in the seven- and eight-figure prices that are bloating the totals of Christie’s and Sotheby’s auctions of postwar and contemporary art.

 

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