New York And London
In recent years computer technology has been applied to the art market with considerable success. Technological innovation in picture imaging and print scanning means that today’s computers are able to “read” catalogues and store text and pictures in their memory. Centrox Corporation, a New York based company which has been successfully applying this new technology to the art market, launched a new product at the Feria Internacional de Arte Contemporanea 1991 in Madrid. The service is the first on-line image database providing art auction listings, together with related colour illustrations, that can be searched for any number of key words. Subscribers will be able to access the database via telephone-link to their own personal computers, calling up information, such as estimates, provenances and colour images, for works of art for sale at over 170 auction houses worldwide. After the sale, Centrox informs its clients of the sale results, thereby providing a comprehensive historical database on the market prices of artists at auction around the world. Centrox currently lists Old Master, nineteenth-century, modern and contemporary paintings, drawings, watercolours, prints, sculpture and photography. Their service is obviously aimed at collectors, dealers and auction houses, and makes the art market more accessible to the general public.
Centrox is also involved in a joint project with IFAR, the International Foundation for Art Research, whose aim is to track stolen art. By matching auction information to known stolen works, they hope to make it much more difficult for thieves to return stolen works to the art market and thereby reduce the temptation to steal.
A somewhat similar service, though limited to the UK and Ireland, is at present being launched by Thesaurus Group Ltd, the London-based fine art information company. Their Auction Search Service monitors over 400 UK auction catalogues, keeping track of subscribers’ individual requests. It assists dealers and collectors seeking fine art, antiques and collectables, by notifying them, either by post, fax or electronic mail, of any lots coming up for sale anywhere in the UK and Ireland.
Clearly, both these companies are forging into a new and potentially lucrative market which will surely have important consequences for the art world. Better and more easily accessible information could, in the long run, encourage more people to participate in the art trade.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'The art market at the touch of a button'