Sotheby’s Chooses Artsy As A One-Time Sales Outlet

The New York Times has the announcement of a collaboration between Sotheby’s and Artsy. Here’s how Sotheby’s press release describes the online only sale to be held in October on Artsy:

The time-based auction of Contemporary Art will focus exclusively on artworks responding to popular culture and daily life in a digital age. The timely theme of the creation and the sharing of images and information through digital platforms is a modern phenomenon that defines our everyday experiences. The sale, which is the first of its kind to be organized by Sotheby’s, will feature a range of emerging and established contemporary artists who explore painting, sculpture, photography, and video through innovative practices.

Since Sotheby’s is organizing the sale, Artsy is meant to provide the audience which the New York Times describes thus:

Artsy said it has counted 18 million visits since it began.

Artsy launched in May of 2010. 18m visits over 63 months works out to traffic of 285k visits a month. Artsy’s PR claims “~600k unique visitors per month” which seems striking considering Sotheby’s own site gets 118k visitors, according to quantcast.

Update: Artsy says they opened to the public in October of 2012. That would make the 18m visits spread over 35 months. That’s an average of 514k visits per month.

Sotheby’s Auction Coming to an Art App Near You  (The New York Times)