Internet and Fine Art What Term Paper

," goes on to say that one gallery almost sold all of its prints and a rival site also took 100 orders for prints. (Selling, 1)

Also, in the second article cited, "Art and the Internet," an article found in BusinessWeek on 24 January, 2001, it claims that only 2% of international art sales, valued at $7 billion, are actually well-known and sold in public auctions with the help of the Internet. They look forward to a future where the value of art will be redesigned and modernized. Some online auction houses are creating new concepts to further open the art market, presumably setting up more dazzling designs and flash images to catch the attention of would-be art collectors.

However, in the fourth article entitled "Rough Time Online," from ArtNews of January, 2001, the journal declares that it has been a tough year for online sales of art, with many sites folding and others barely hanging on. "While those observers who are skeptical of the Internet's potential as a marketplace for high-end art note the financial instability of the past year, optimists point to an increasing number of new collectors who have emerged online." (Selling, para. 4)

While there are mixed reviews of the success of art sales online, sale prices seem to tend to be low. One new auction house brags that they are making "high quality investment art" available to the general public at up to half the normal retail price." (Selling, para. 7) well-established auction house, such as Sotheby's may represent and sell work much easier than other, lesser-knowns or unknowns: "Sotheby's, which reported first-half sales of $221 million, made $31 million over the same period in online sales alone." As they do in their actual plush auction rooms, the company will only sell upscale works of art. Recently, a sculpture with a bidding price starting at $500,000, was up for auction on Sotheby's site, it was the armless Venus statue by Aristide Maillol (Ducourtieux, 4).

As our culture enters the cyber age, where more and more communication and commerce will be handled on the Internet, it is only to be expected that viewing and sales of artwork would also move into the Web. It is wobbling now, but the industry of art sales through the Internet is growing stronger and more confident. Artists are beginning to trust the reputable agents on the web, as much as they trusted them in brick-and-mortar buildings (which sometimes was not at all). Sales will increase as the art collectors learn how to utilize this global market to gain a wider choice and a fair market from their computer.

Meanwhile, the easy access to art through virtual museums on the Web and eye-catching ads for artwork may actually educate the computer generation. The young people growing up with eye candy such as anime' and Disney characters alongside Botticelli and Warhol, will know more about art history and the best known artworks from time immemorial than past generations who, for the most part, felt lucky to have visited an art museum once in their lifetime, or glanced through a coffee-table book of classical sculpture or paintings.

References

ArtNews.com. http://www.artdaily.com/section/artfairs/index.asp?int_sec=113

Bamberger, A. (2005) "Selling Art on the Internet." ArtBusiness.com. Retrieved December 10, 2006 from http://www.artbusiness.com/internetsell.html.

Ducourtieux, C. (2001). "Art and the Internet." BusinessWeek. 24 Jan 2001.

Selling Art Online. (2001). ArtsJournal.com: The Daily Digest of Arts.....