Naturally these benefits have also affected the way people buy and sell art. In fact, considering the evidence, there is a strong case to be made for buying your next piece of art over the internet. The first reason for this is that galleries usually charge a commission of up to 30% on the paintings they sell, over and above their net worth. This seems very high because it is, but then so is the cost of renting gallery space in the city centre, printing exhibition catalogues, holding private views and buying advertising space in the national press to promote the exhibition. Commercial art galleries look forbidding and well appointed because they are in a business where the margins are higher relative to most other industries, with the possible exception of real estate and luxury cars. After all, even a single percentage of half a million pounds is still a considerable sum of money. This is the reason why commercial art galleries are often empty. It is also why most people feel immediately uncomfortable and out of their depth as soon as they walk into one.
The obvious benefit of buying art online, therefore, is that you can remain as anonymous as you would be in your local supermarket, without anybody hovering over you attempting to influence your judgement. And should you end up buying a piece of fine art online, you can feel safe in the knowledge that up to thirty percent of the sale price is not being used to subsidise the gallery’s rent and maintenance costs. Also, if you require a second or third opinion on the piece you are interested in you won’t need to drag your friend or partner along to the gallery, but can simply email them the link to the page where you first saw it. Also, of course, since you are online already, you are in a perfect position to do some further research about the seller of the piece you are interested in, the artist who created it and maybe even the piece itself. And the benefit for anybody choosing to sell art online is that their audience is not restricted to whoever happens to enter the gallery on a given day, but a potential worldwide audience who can view the art twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
Given the benefits of buying art online, it is not surprising that this particular section of the art industry is growing even more rapidly than the evolution of internet art. We all know how wonderful an invention the world wide web is and how it has revolutionalised our lives. Well, it looks as though it is in the process of revolutionising the way we trade in art too. Who knows, maybe bricks and mortar galleries will be a thing of the past in a hundred years like gramophone records have recently become or, dare we say it, horses and carriages used for anything other than wedding ceremonies!
