Art auction comes to your cell phone

By Madhusree Chatterjee, New Delhi, Sep 6 : Imagine bidding for art or even jewellery on your cell phone! Auction house Saffronart has just made it possible, with its CEO, Dinesh Vazirani, saying more innovative tools are needed to reach out to a larger cross-section of investors and buyers.

Saffronart launched the mobile bidding service for art and jewellery last week and claims it is the first of its kind in the world.

'By providing clients with this cutting-edge application, we hope to accelerate the pace of innovation of the global auction space, which needs new tools to reach out to a larger number of buyers,' Vazirani, who is also co-founder of Saffronart, told IANS in an interview from Mumbai.

'In India, the penetration of internet connectivity is still low in comparison to the number of mobile handsets, which is growing exponentially.'

The service offers all the features of website bidding, including placing of bids and proxy bids, the creation of a 'my auction page' and viewing bid histories. The service is compatible with most major phone models like Blackberry, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

Vazirani felt that 'as the art market was gradually stabilising after the downturn, it was the best time to reap an early harvest'.

'There seems to be a strong sense that the market is stabilising and doing so at lower price levels. This can clearly be seen by the overall value of sales across the major three auction houses, Saffronart, Christie's and Sotheby's that sell Indian art,' he said.

Vazirani said the total sales of art this summer were nearly 50 percent higher than those in spring.

'Prices are likely to rise as there are strong expectations of recovery. However, the increase will be at a more sustainable pace. In order for the Indian art market to grow within India and internationally, the key will be institutional and government support largely to create educational, exhibition and academic spaces where the arts can thrive,' he said.

Explaining the mobile bid application, Vazirani said it was equipped with all the features of website bidding that gave users unprecedented access to auctions.

'It offers speed, convenience and secure access to customers who are often on the move,' he said.

Describing the application, he said it was 'equipped with a special function which allowed users to keep track of auction progress with information on current bid amounts and bid histories'.

'Since this function gets updated every 15 minutes, it gives users access to the latest information about the bid history, allowing real time information updates from the auction. Users can also check auction results after the auction has closed. In addition, a colour-coded bid status indicator lets the users know if they hold the leading bid,' Vazirani said.

The mobile bid facility, Vazirani explained, also gave bidders access to auction catalogues on the cellphone.

'All that they need to do is to register with Saffronart. Even if they are not bidding, they can simply download the application and watch the auction on their phone.

'Users can preview the entire auction catalogue, including a lot of details such as size, surface, medium and estimates, and view the images. The entire catalogue along with the images in small and large sizes is available on cellphone,' he said.

The mobile bidding service targeted those constantly on the move, he said.

'The focus is the high-end audience which frequently travels and is eager to acquire the best art and jewellery in the world, no matter where they are. The client profile of Indian art and artefacts is changing with more international buyers pitching for Indian art,' he said.

Saffronart is believed to be India's largest online auction house of modern and contemporary art.

(Madhushree Chatterjee can be contacted at madhu.c@ians.in)