Online art auction first for NZ

By RICHARD PAMATATAU


The aloof and often snitty world of traditional white-walled art galleries is being challenged by the brash immediacy of the internet as buyers go online to pick up works of art.

Auckland's Fisher Fine Arts, a branch of one of New Zealand's oldest art retailers, started an internet auction yesterday featuring works by some iconic local artists.

Among the 29 paintings on the block at its website are works by Charles Goldie, Michael Illingworth, Colin McCahon, Peter McIntyre, Phillipa Blair and Frances Hodgkins.

Simon Fisher, director of the Auckland gallery, said the move to conduct a complete Fishers Fine Arts auction online was a new step and the big-name pieces on offer showed sellers were taking the medium seriously.

The art firm has been watching the work of American online auction house Ebay and has applied the model to its auction.

Simon Fisher said an online auction could be seen as similar to people making phone bids into a regular auction but in this case they could see each work and track the bidding process closely.

It also meant costs could be cut because Fisher was charging only a 5 per cent fee on works sold this way and there were no catalogue fees.

Buyers were protected because the company allowed them 48 hours to inspect a work after purchase.

Simon Fisher said interest in the auction had been high from prospective bidders in New Zealand and overseas.

Hamish Coney, general manager of auction house Webb's, where the wealthy converge to buy art, jewellery and furniture, said his company would not go online.

"We don't think the internet does justice to the kind of works we auction and nothing beats the passion and atmosphere of the auction room where people are part of the market at work.

"Naturally the internet has a huge part to play in the marketing of items being offered but Webb's is not going to hold online auctions particular where the works are very important."


Coney said a new generation of buyers were entering the art-buying market and they were tech savvy. But the internet was just a way of driving interest in the physical auction.

The contents of Webb's catalogues were available online so overseas buyers were able to peruse before they received the hard copy, he said.

"It is unlikely buyers are going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on paintings from a website," he said.

Jonathan Gooderham, director of the Jonathan Grant Gallery in Parnell, said he sold a "significant work" online to a buyer in Dubai for over $50,000.

He refused to disclose the name of the artist but said it was a person who was mid-career and well known.

"I think the internet is a very viable way for people to buy art so long as they are buying works from respected dealers with history, credibility and knowledge of what they are doing."

Gooderham said his gallery had a detailed website and he regularly sold paintings to buyers from it.

Dunbar Sloane jun, manager of Dunbar Sloane's Auckland operation, said the web was a marvellous advertising tool but could never be anything else when it came to selling art.

"We think it is a good way to let the market know what is available but people spending that amount have to see the work in the flesh.

Even though the art market was hot, Sloane said people were not making decisions rashly.

Auction site Trade Me, seen by many as the great electronic New Zealand garage sale, has dipped its toe into the online art sales arena and has formed a liaison with upscale Parnell dealer the International Art Centre.

Director Richard Thomson said it was using the store Trade Me had set up as a "clearing house" for affordable art.

"We see the internet as a very useful environment for moving works and will be seeing how it goes over the next few months."

The International Art Centre had already sold a number of works that way, he said.

Sam Morgan, Trade Me's general manager, said it would host more than 50,000 art auctions this year.

Whether art buyers will make big-purchase decisions on the web is still to be seen but, as Simon Fisher said, sometimes people making a significant purchase wanted to do it discreetly.



SLOW START TO BIDS


The auction began slowly with a modest $15,000 being paid as the first bid on a landscape by Sydney Thompson, then $2000 for a lithograph by Robin White.

Following this, $90,000 and $350,000 bids were placed on an Illingworth and Goldie painting respectively.

Simon Fisher said he expected bidding to intensify over the 14-day auction period and is confident New Zealand records will be set on the Goldie and Illingworth paintings being offered.

Customers had already indicated what they were prepared to offer and their intent was strong.

But the auction was not gremlin-free and the eye-watering $136,000 bid on a painting of a lemon tree by Nigel Brown was actually a mix-up when the technology provider started serving up paintings and prices from the test site.

Fisher said all registered bidders would be emailed and made aware of this.