Auctions hosted online at LiveAuctioneers.com May 2-4 bring unprecedented levels of online participation, auction records
May. 5, 2008
NEW YORK— LiveAuctioneers.com, the premier destination for online participation in top-quality auctions worldwide, today announced details of a record-setting series of auctions held May 2-4. More than 10,000 online bidders signed up to participate in auctions over the past weekend, with online bidders purchasing in excess of $3 million in antiques, fine art and collectibles for the Friday-Monday period.
LiveAuctioneers’ leadership position in the online auction marketplace (facilitating more than 80% of all auctions on eBay Live Auctions) enables the company’s roster of auction-house clients to market sales to an existing database of 2.7 million past auction bidders, as well as millions of potential buyers worldwide who rely on LiveAuctioneers’ search engine to source the freshest art, antiques and collectibles at the world’s finest auction houses and galleries.
The first of the highlights was achieved May 3 at Brunk Auctions, where The Drover, an artist-signed oil on canvas by Elliott Daingerfield (NC/NY, 1859-1932) set an auction record for the artist when it sold to an online bidder for $96,000 (includes buyer’s premium) against an estimate of $15,000-$25,000. Works by Daingerfield have performed exceedingly well online, with a LiveAuctioneers bidder driving the price of the artist’s work Venice to $83,950 with buyer’s premium (against a high estimate of $10,000) at Leland Little’s March 1 auction.
One day later, a Chinese solid gilt-bronze figure of Buddha Shakyamuni, Late Northern Wei Dynasty, 6th century sold to a LiveAuctioneers bidder for $89,650 (includes buyer’s premium) against an estimate of $12,000-$16,000. According to Laura Decker, director of Online Sales for Clars Auction Gallery, this is the highest price ever achieved through an online sale at Clars, and continues a pattern of ever-higher prices paid by online buyers for Asian antiquities.
“Confidence in online bidding is building all of the time, said LiveAuctioneers CEO Julian R. Ellison. “This weekend’s sales demonstrate the continued growth of Internet preview and bidding as a viable form of auction participation at the higher end of the regional market.
