Christie’s auctions go online

Art collectors will now be able to experience the drama of the auction room from the comfort of their homes and bid for fine art with the click of a mouse, Christie’s said.

The auctioneer has teamed up with online bidding company Auction Management Solutions, from Tampa, Florida, to develop technology that provides real-time video and sound from sales rooms and aims to tap a new generation of clients.
The move comes three years after Sotheby’s, Christie’s main rival, abandoned Web-only auctions, having entered into a joint venture with online retailer Amazon.com as early as 1999.
Despite notable successes, including the $8.14 million Internet sale of a first printing of the US Declaration of Independence in 2000, the programme was estimated to have lost around $100 million.
A Sotheby’s spokeswoman said the company did still take bids at four collectibles sales each year via eBay.
Christie’s also joins a long list of online auctioneers of art and antiques, including eBay, iCollector.com and Artnet.com.
Christie’s is confident that the expansion of broadband technology will help it succeed where Sotheby’s failed.
“Eyebrows were raised at the time,” said Hugh Edmeades, chairman of Christie’s South Kensington branch in London, recalling doubts over Christie’s initial failure to harness the Internet. “Luckily it proved to be a good development.”
Auctioneers will have a screen in front of them in the sale room, and can look directly into the camera when addressing an online bidder.
The technology is being applied to selected sales over the coming months, including an auction of Star Trek memorabilia due to be held in October.
But there are plans to expand the service so that in a year’s time clients can bid several million pounds over the Internet in the main auctions.
“Pre-broadband, online bidders were at a disadvantage,” Edmeades said. “This makes it virtually instantaneous.”
He added that telephone bids could gradually go out of fashion should online bidding take off.