The American Flamingo by John James Audubon.
Sotheby’s and eBay are to join forces in an attempt to expand the live auction market. Art and collectibles from Sotheby’s live auctions in New York will be made available to eBay’s 145 million active buyers. The two companies announced today that they are exploring the development of an online platform to make it easier for people to discover, browse and acquire works of art, antiques and collectibles on the internet. eBay and Sotheby’s will start by offering a number of live auctions at Sotheby’s headquarters in New York. eBay will shortly launch a newly designed experience tailored for collectors and new buyers.
It will include a live auction feature and online bidding from anywhere in the world. Initially there will be 18 collecting categories. In the future the partnership will explore themed and time based sales. In 2013 online bidders competed for 17 per cent of lots offered at Sotheby’s. In April this year John James Audubon’s elephant folio The Birds of America sold for $3.5 million, a new record for an online purchase at Sotheby’s. Last year more than half of all lots sold online at Sotheby’s were in the $5,000-100,000 range. The average value of watches sold was $41,753, the average value of prints sold online was $27,575 and the average value of books and manuscripts was $18,484.