Amazon has announced that it’s partnered up with over 150 galleries and art dealers across the US to sell you fine art through its new initiative Amazon Art. The site offers over 40,000 original works of fine art, showcasing 4,500 artists. That, perhaps unsurprisingly, makes it the largest online collection of art directly available from galleries and dealers. Partners in the project include Paddle8 in New York, the McLoughlin Gallery in San Francisco, and the Catherine Person Gallery in Seattle.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon—which will reportedly take a 5 to 20 percent cut on all sales—was planning to launch the new service. At the time, it seemed that plenty of galleries thought that selling art online via Amazon may be distasteful. Clearly, that negative feeling hasn’t stopped Bezos & Co.
Given Amazon’s last attempt at selling art—a project with Sotheby’s back in 200—only lasted 16 months, it’ll be interesting to see how the initiative works out. It’s certainly an interesting idea, but how happy would you be spending big bucks on art online? Amazon presentation of the online store says: “Welcome to our new Fine Art store featuring paintings, drawings, mixed media works, photography and art prints. From new artists to famous artists the Fine Art store features artworks and paintings for sale from a multitude of periods and styles including: Pop art, Abstract art, Modern art, Contemporary art, and much more. We focus on highlighting a wide variety of artists, painters, Contemporary artists, Renaissance artists, Modern and Post-Modern artists;find an artist that fits your style in our Fine Arts store.
The Fine Arts store features many types of artwork including: canvas prints, abstract paintings, oil paintings, drawings, photography, mixed media works, and collages to add to your home, art gallery, professional workspace or other. As we continue to grow our collections of artworks, the Fine Arts store is sure to have something for everybody whether you are an experienced collector or looking to find your first piece of art”. For more information go to Amazon Art.