OBAG : Online British Art Gallery : Modern, Contemporary, Fine and UK Art Database

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All Media - 7th April 2005

Who Uses the Internet to Search and Research the Art Market?

The Online British Art Gallery (OBAG) www.obag.co.uk has just released summary information on buyers using the internet to research the art market. The most common user profile has been found to be female (60% of users), aged between 35 and 44 years old and expecting to pay between one and four thousand pounds for an original piece. Intriguingly, the most popular criterion used to filter the OBAG database currently relates to picture dimensions - more popular even than subject matter or picture style.

Iain Cross, Managing Director and founder of The Online British Art Gallery commented
'The survey results surprised us. We didn't expect such a high proportion of women taking the lead, nor did we expect the most important initial criterion to be picture dimension. It seems that a great many buyers are now starting an art search with the focus of finding a piece to complement a specific space, leaving subject matter, colour and picture style until later in the process'.

With UK buyers having over 3,000 galleries from which to buy art, they are increasingly turning to the internet to undertake iniitial research. No longer are collectors relying on traditional purchase methods such as impulse purchases or being contacted through direct marketing campaigns. However, with literally tens of thousands of sites to choose from, they are finding it increasingly difficult to undertake meaningful searches.

The Online British Art Gallery (OBAG) – www.obag.co.uk, launched in February 2005 was created to address this need, providing a research portal for buyers to research the market using up to 14 different art search criteria.

OBAG is currently free to both buyers and sellers. No art is sold on the website - it purely focuses on helping connect interested parties find the right art and making the right deal. Once a buyer has found a piece they are interested in, the site enables them to discover the name of the gallery selling it along with all their contact information.

Aspiring artists are also catered for. Those, whose works are perhaps not ready to meet OBAG’s rigorous selection criteria for a full entry, are still able to log their CV’s onto the system for general review. Later this year, these biographies they will form part of a more extensive artist research facility for UK buyers.

Before Iain Cross set up the service in February 2005, research had indicated that there was very strong demand for an easy to use art research facility. Serious art buyers didn’t want to buy art on-line, but they did want to use the internet to gather basic information.

He concluded 'The Online British Art Gallery at www.obag.co.uk is quickly becoming an essential service for art buyer and seller alike – the internet equivalent of a 365 day good quality Art Fair'.

ENDS

For more information please contact:

Press Office
020 8876 2001
pressoffice@obag.co.uk

Notes to Editors

About the Online British Art Gallery (www.obag.co.uk)

Launched in February 2005, The Online British Art Gallery (www.obag.co.uk) is the most comprehensive art search engine available on the net. It is an on-line art dating service with the sole goal of introducing interested buyers to vendors, predominantly art galleries, that are exhibiting specific works of interest.

Art galleries located around the UK display their art on the site. Potential buyers register to join the service and can then search for pieces of art using 14 different criteria, such as galleries most local to them, individual artist or by the type of art they want, such as still life or watercolour.

Once a buyer has found a piece of interest, the site enables them to discover the name of the vendor. They make contact and then arrange to view the piece in person, either using the contact information on the screen or via links to the vendor’s own website. Mutual arrangements are then made for the buyer to view the art and making the sale. The Online British Art Gallery has been designed for researching and locating art, but not buying.