Online art auctioneer Paddle8 has raised the stakes for online art sales by partnering with Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions to hold a series of online-only auctions without a buyer’s premium.
The four-sale series of 0%-buyer’s-premium auctions, titled Unconditional, sets out to extend Paddle8’s collector-friendly modernization of the traditional auction model. It kicked off with Unconditional: Rare Prints and Editions with Zero BP launches on Paddle8 on August 15, with bidding open until August 31.
The sale includes prints and photographs by coveted modern and contemporary artists, including Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon, Roy Lichtenstein, and Julie Mehretu. Bidding is available on Paddle8.com.
By partnering with a respected regional auction house, Paddle8 aims to present a locally-sourced inventory to its global collecting audience.
In the first half of 2014, Paddle8 sold more than $17 million of art and design, in part through its partnerships with regional auction houses like Bloomsbury, as well as Paddle8’s curated auctions and non-profit auctions.
“Paddle8 has created a destination for collectors to purchase art online with maximum ease, removing many of the transactional friction costs of collecting,” said Stephan Ludwig, Executive Chairman, Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Auctions.
“Dreweatt’s & Bloomsbury Auctions are excited to pass the benefits of this efficiency to our collectors by presenting a joint program of online-only sales in which all lots are offered without a buyer’s premium. We are delighted to provide both Paddle8’s 200,000 collectors worldwide and Bloomsbury’s dedicated collector base with access to these special sales.”
Osman Khan, COO and Founding Partner, Paddle8, added: “Our collectors are clamouring for the high-quality inventory sourced by renowned regional auction houses like Bloomsbury, including works by blue-chip artists from Warhol and Lichtenstein to Bacon and Picasso. We look forward to a successful partnership with Bloomsbury, which has embraced the possibilities of the digital landscape to experiment with the format and conventions of a traditional auction—while dramatically expanding their audience of collectors.”
