If you think buying video art is complex, try buying a website. The New York-based Postmasters Gallery presented a new website, www.flyingfrying.com by the Dutch-Brazilian artist Rafaël Rozendaal, at the Seven fair in New York last month. Priced at $6,000, the animation of a fried egg is one of 100 websites by Rozendaal (left, www.slowempty.com), 40 of which have sold to collectors, including the Belgian-based Alain Servais and Holland-based Carla and Hugo Brown. Each website comes with a contract that stipulates that it must remain live and that the owner must renew the domain registration annually. In exchange, the owner’s name appears at the top of the web page (although he or she can also choose to remain anonymous). Rozendaal says that “it’s the virtual equivalent of owning a sculpture in a public park”.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Collectors net website art'