Want to buy art but don’t like crowds, openings or putting on a clean shirt? You might try Ocula, a new NZ/Australian focussed online auction site and news source. You can also sell art on the site with a negotiable commission capped at only 5%.
Will it work? Well, there are a few artworks poised ready to leap into cyber auction mode - a Billy Apple silkscreened Bartered work kicks off today with an estimate of $15,000-20,000 and a beautiful signed Max Dupain Sunbaker print comes up for bidding on 10 May.
So far there are no time limits against any of the listed auctions but maybe they’ll be added when the bidding starts. Elsewhere on the site auctions are described as either being seven or ten days long. Without them of course you don't really have an auction so much as a listing.
The proof of Ocula will be in the results and in the transparency of the entire transaction. We’ll check in again around the end of May to see what info is provided on sale prices, best bids and all the other stuff that make auctions such fun to watch and nerve-wracking to join.
In the meantime, you can check Ocula out here.
