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Artnet and eBay are the most significant companies in the online market for buying and selling art.  On any given day, there are at least 50 pieces or art selling for $1 million or more on eBay.com.  Just last month Artnet.com reported what it says may be the most expensive piece of art ever purchased on the Internet - a Warhol (Flowers) that sold in an online auction for $1.3 million.  Each site spends a considerable amount of time and money developing the art aspect of its ecommerce business – a category that is eBay's fourth largest (Skates 7).  A search I did just this morning reveals that there are approximately one and a half million items classified as "art" being offered for sale on ebay alone.  They categorize their art offerings into three major categories: 1)  Art from Dealers & Resellers (1,262,189 items);  2) Direct from the Artist (176,896 items);  and 3) Wholesale Lots (19,719 items).  While artnet.com does not list the number of works being offered, it does appear to be several thousand.  What it does interestingly list on its site is the most notable sales in each category, for example a "contemporary" work by Louise Bourgeois, Ode à l'Oubli, which sold in 2009 or $209,000 on its online auction.  Although the recent Skate's report finds that eBay is the best infrastructure for online art sales (Skates 7), I think Artnet's user interface is a lot more straightforward and importantly provides a better breakdown of the different categories of art being auctioned.   

Skate's Art Market Research reports that as of December 23, 2011, the following companies lead in the online art market. Image Removed Image Added
III.  Christie's  and Sotheby's online auctions: 

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