Tim Goodman is relaunching the ill-fated Fine Art Bourse (FAB) “more cautiously” in his native Australia. In 2015, the online auction concept folded when it ran out of money shortly before the first sale when Goodman—former owner of Bonhams & Goodman and Sotheby’s Australia under licence—first established it in London. The business, Goodman says, “ran out of funds due to the technology being six months late and still not working properly”. With a new board of directors, in the past year he has raised $200,000 to rebuild the technology. “The company is intact and all debts forgiven,” Goodman says. FAB’s relaunch sale, of erotica, is on 12 September.
Aiming to undercut traditional auctioneers, FAB charges a 5% buyer’s and seller’s premium and avoids VAT, sales tax and Artist's Resale Right by running auctions via a server in Hong Kong. Goodman says this uses a loophole in an Anglo Saxon common law stating that an auction takes place where and when the hammer falls. FAB advertises free packing and shipping, but this is covered by a fee, to vendor and buyer, of $330 for lots with a lower estimate of up to $100,000, and $1,000 for those above. Consignments will be evaluated remotely via photographs, and kept in storage facilities around the world with which Goodman “has arrangements” until sale.