Pursuits
Art Sales Move Online to Attract Buyers
Web-based startups are offering affordable art for first-time buyers
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At online art vendor Auctionata’s 4,000-square-foot Midtown Manhattan offices, works for sale by Andy Warhol, Marc Chagall, and Alexander Calder are being hung on the walls. Staffers, seated at long plastic tables, are assigning values to watches, paintings, and handbags. The goods are then stored away in metal lockers.
With $57 million in funding, the Berlin-based startup is preparing for its first U.S. auction on Oct. 23. Auctionata, which sold €12 million ($15.1 million) of fine art and collectibles online in the first half of 2014, plans to stream eight auctions of art, luxury goods, and 20th century design objects from New York by the end of the year.