Artnet, the art world's leading digital disruptor, celebrates 30 years of innovation

Artnet looks ahead to a refreshed brand identity, partnership with Anish Kapoor, a new podcast, and a system platform upgrade

New York, October 25, 2019-The art industry's most innovative and enduring digital platform, Artnet, is celebrating three decades of innovation this year. Founded in 1989, this first-generation web business has lead the art industry in digital firsts, and, thanks to the vision of its founder and team, evolved into a profitable business that serves as both vital marketplace and intelligence hub for gallerists, collectors, and auction houses.

Launched online the same year as the World Wide Web, Artnet Price Database predates Yahoo! and Craigslist and stands as one of the internet's longest-running web businesses. Its impact: bringing transparency to a once opaque market where pricing records were not readily shared or available.

"The market was a much smaller place back then because it was hard to standardize the value of art," says entrepreneur and artnet founder Hans Neuendorf. "I had the simple idea of cataloguing secondary market prices and distributing those for a fee."

Like what Zillow did decades later for real estate or the Bloomberg Terminal now does for stocks, Artnet transformed the market, giving people access to information and spurring investment.

"Any healthy marketplace requires price transparency," adds Neuendorf. "Some auction houses fought Artnet and didn't want their sales published but the industry was hungry for it. The art market exploded in subsequent years and having accurate price data was foundational to that growth."

Artnet's flagship product, the Price Database, now the gold standard in the industry with more than 13 million records dating back to 1985, started a series of firsts for the company which include: operating a best-of-class digital newsroom, providing galleries an early form of digital marketing with its Gallery Network, and being the first to host online auctions for fine art.

- In 1995, before most galleries built their own websites, Artnet established the Gallery Network, a digital showcase of available artworks for a global audience of collectors. Today, more than 35,000 artists with over 220,000 artworks provide a robust forum and the largest network of its kind.

- The company was also the first to establish online auctions dedicated to fine art: Artnet Auctions. Today, their unique auction model offers see-now buy-now artworks vetted by experts and powered by analysis from the Price Database.

- Artnet News was founded almost six years ago, and remains the sole provider of round-the-clock reporting on art world updates from the industry's most trusted journalists.

- Last year, Artnet introduced bi-annual Intelligence Reports, a collaboration between the Database and News teams, to offer exclusive insights into the art market. These reports drive the art market with proprietary data-backed intelligence that moves markets and makes headlines. The Fall 2019 edition, Welcome to the Age of the Art Industry (The Art World is Over), looks back at the tectonic shifts in the art market since artnet started 30 years ago.

"Ultimately the online world knows no borders of course, and our team is the best in the business," states Jacob Pabst, CEO of Artnet. "We will push the art industry forward as we always have and continue to increase profitability across all of our divisions."

Today, Artnet AG is listed in the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Since 2012, under the leadership of Pabst, Artnet has become profitable, netting more than $1 million dollars last year. Artnet's business continues to grow demonstrating the company's underlying strength.

Planning for its future growth, Artnet will be unveiling a new visual brand identity this year. The Art Angle podcast will debut covering where the art world meets the real world hosted by Andrew Goldstein, editor-in-chief of Artnet News. A major technological upgrade to the company's historic website and database infrastructure will also be completed in the coming year.

In late October, Artnet is hosting an anniversary celebration to honor its 30 years of innovation. The festivities will take over the Top of the Standard. In addition, the company is announcing a partnership with world-renowned British sculptor Anish Kapoor that evening. As one of the most widely known and thought-provoking sculptors of our time, Kapoor's work can be found in major collections around the world, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Modern in London, and the Guggenheim in Bilbao. In this partnership, Artnet will be bringing a major work by the artist never before exhibited in North America to New York, representing an exciting new chapter in Artnet's art world leadership.

About Artnet
Artnet is the leading online resource for the international art market, and the destination to buy, sell, and research art online. Founded in 1989 with the goal of bringing transparency to the art world, Artnet's comprehensive suite of products offers a variety of art market resources to our audience of collectors, dealers, and art enthusiasts.

Press Contact
Artnet
Stephanie Kraeutler
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212-584-5668