Saatchi Gallery Online Saleroom is Open for Business !!!

By On October 5, 2007 · 11 Comments

Saatchi Gallery Online Saleroom is Open for Business !!!

It is with extreme excitement that I announce that the Saatchi Gallery Online Saleroom (http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/saleroom) is now open for business. The Saatchi Online Gallery is the pet project of controversial advertising mogul and art super-collector Charles Saatchi whose entrepreneurial skill is responsible for the rise of artists such as Damien Hirst (we all make mistakes), Tracey Emin, Sandra Chia and Sean Scully to name a few. With the proven ability to make or break an artist with worrying ease, Saatchi is saatchi smoking Saatchi Gallery Online Saleroom is Open for Business !!!arguably the most influential person in the world art market and the envy of more than a few art world elite.  The physical Saatchi Gallery in London has been closed since 2005 after a highly publicised feud with his landlords which resulted in Saatchi being evicted from the previous gallery location at London’s County Hall.  After several delays the Saatchi gallery will re-open in early 2008 at its new location of The Duke of York’s HQ building on Kings Road in Chelsea which with 70,000 sq ft of exhibition space will be one of the largest contemporary galleries in the world.

The lack of a physical gallery space has allowed the Saatchi Online Gallery to flourish with the number of hits exceeding fifty million per day on most days. Primarily a space for artists to display their work and network with other artists, it was only going to be a matter of time before the ability for artists to sell their work through the gallery was included, and that time has come. The Saatchi Online Saleroom allows anyone to buy art free of commission from artists around the world. The site takes no commission from artists and charges no commission to buyers. You simply buy the work you like directly from the artist, using Paypal or a suitable alternative payment method. The order that artists appear is random and changes regularly so the only way to find what you are looking for, other than searching for a particular artist, is to scroll through each work one by one which can get rather annoying especially when the order changes. There are a few glitches to be sorted out such as the defective artist search and it would be nice to be able to have the works sorted by medium but overall the saleroom is an exciting development that is a great opportunity for both artists and collectors. I can assure you that I will be purchasing works from the Saatchi Gallery Online Saleroom in the very near future so stay tuned for a full report once I have decided what to buy.

Saatchi Gallery Online Saleroom is Open for Business !!!**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications.

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  • http://www.marysecasol.com casol

    Nice one! It was only a matter of time, yes.

  • http://www.saatchigallery.com pico reinoso

    undoubtfully some refinements may be necessary, but clearly this is the way of the future.

  • http://www.artforprofits.com artforprofits

    It is indeed the way of the future and will give many artists that chance they need to shine!

    Nicholas Forrest
    artmarketblog.com

  • http://artdabble.blogspot.com Ben Rowe

    Nick,

    Obviously Saatchi’s decision to go online is huge news for the art world, and I can see why the online gallery is attracting lots of traffic.

    But I think the Saatchi online gallery is a huge disappointment. It looks as though it was built in 1999. Arists are doing quite well for themselves, using a host of web 2.0 sites like myspace, etsy, deviant art and many more to get their names out there.

    There is little need for a website with such poor functionality, even if it is the lovechild of such an influential art entrepreneur.

    I think the Saatchi Gallery online is a case of too little, too late. Sure, it will attract a tonne of traffic in the next month or so. But Saatchi has clearly done little to understand the internet, and the new ways that artists and collecters promote and buy artwork.

  • http://www.artforprofits.com artforprofits

    Hi Ben.

    I agree that the Saatchi saleroom does need a lot of work and is hardly user friendly but I still think it is a significant addition to the art market.

    Nicholas Forrest
    artmarketblog.com

  • http://www.barenberg.com Carol Barenberg

    I hope you will visit my site. Amongst the blogs it was a pleasure to read someone literate. How does one not get lost in aa field of 18,000+ ? Carol Barenberg

  • http://www.artforprofits.com artforprofits

    Hi Carol,

    Thanks for visiting. I know that it is not east being an artist and trying to stand out from the crowd so you need to network as much as you can, get your work shown in as many places as you can and not get frustrated.

    Regards,

    Nicholas Forrest
    artmarketblog.com

  • pico rivera

    Saatchi is a pop-up spammer with a pathetic looking, poorly designed site. Hardly the people I would want representing me.

  • Pat Bell

    That would be great if i could ever log on..so much traffic….i’ve been trying for 5 days on 2 different computers….

  • kingkong

    Extremely exciting. lolololololol

  • Rux

    Saatchi’s saleroom is not even a proper way of selling items online. From what I’ve seen it is the same as writing someone by email and hoping they don’t jerk you around with paying. No paypal?

    Everyone knows that the only reason that site has high traffic is because of Saatchi’s name attached to it. Thousands of hopeful artists join it with the hope of being discovered by Mr. Saatchi. How many have been found? It just seems like a traffic scam to me. Especially the ShownDown system of begging for votes.

    I also found an interesting article recently that suggested Saatchi might soon have a few thorns in his side concerning his online efforts. Look:

    http://thenextweb.org/2008/08/01/the-biggest-social-network-you-have-never-heard-off/

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