|
Investing in Art using the Net
Reprint from an article
prepared by Richard Brewster for the Melbourne Age Money
supplement 2002 Australia’s first virtual gallery, lookart.net, has opened another important avenue for art investors by enabling them to buy and sell paintings over the Internet.
According to its creator Paul Auckett, not only do virtual galleries enable investors to shop from the comfort of their own home or office, they also offer asset artworks at competitive prices because there are no expensive shopfront rents and staffing costs are minimal.
“The virtual gallery is vast with hundreds of paintings by name artists such as Garry Shead, Arthur and David Boyd, Sidney Nolan, Norman Lindsay and Pro Hart, as well as a large selection of other Australian and international painters available to view and purchase,” he said.
“The list of Australian and international works of interest is constantly updated as new stock becomes available.”
One of the great advantages for investors is that virtual galleries are always open and it only takes a few minutes to get online.
Instead of spending valuable hours visiting commercial galleries
or rummaging around stockrooms to find the right piece,
investment art can be viewed and even purchased during a coffee
break at work or after putting the children to bed.
Ben QUILTY
|
Sidney NOLAN
Paul Auckett, who established lookart.net four years ago to
the Melbourne market but has tended to sell more to interstate and overseas investors, believes it is inevitable that an increasing amount of art will be purchased over the Internet.
"We have seen the Internet spawning applications where specific interest
groups are catered for – and it is the same for art and collectibles,” he said.
“Virtual galleries are now being visited regularly by investors because of the
art range they carry and the fact they can list new stock almost immediately.”
The gallery at lookart.net, which mainly deals with post World War II art, is
easy to navigate. Investors can go straight to the artist in which they are interested simply by clicking through the website.
Thumbnails of a selection of works can be seen before choosing specific
pictures with accompanying written details and a larger image.
Richard Brewster is a
regular columnist
with the Melbourne Age newspaper
|
