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eBay definitely needs to do whatever is possible to insure the authenticity of any artwork being sold, especially any expensive pieces.  They should require some sort of authentication before a major item is listed, for example, a background check on the seller, the item and maybe even require an official provenance be provided before the item is listed for auction.  Ebay and other online sellers of art need to instill confidence in the buyer, by most importantly, I think, offering full refunds in the case of a fake.  All this of course is easier said then done given the nature of the Internet.  There is no perfect fix for the problem of fraud in the art world, whether it takes place online or at the auction house.  Sellers, Internet companies, dealers, etc. simply need to stand behind the authenticity of what is being sold online.  And buyers need to educate themselves as much as possible and proceed with caution when it comes to buying art – especially on the internet.   History has shown that a seller's positive feedback on eBay alone is not enough.  Buyers need to look beyond what the website or seller says when it comes to something as complex as purchasing expensive artwork.

V.  The

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Tangible Nature of

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Art and the Internet:   

The senses are an important part of any purchase.  Yet, when you buy something in cyberspace, you can't touch or feel it, or see it in person, like you would in a store.  Unless you are buying something that you have already experienced holding, like an iPod, it's hard to assess the subtleties like color and texture.  Yet, "fashion," which is almost always has a touch and feel aspect about it, is a major category of eBay sales (Skates 7).  With art, its tangible nature is key; the buyer needs a sense of what is being offered, which in some part I think explains the popularity of the preview / inspection for any major auction.  But the remarkable thing is that despite the difficulty in assessing the tangible nature of artwork online, the fact is that the internet is still is a significant means of buying and selling in the art market.  I think one can say that the telephone bidder from China or Russia who doesn't, for example, attend the inspection of a Warhol or Hirst piece being auctioned off, is really not much different than the internet buyer bidding on the same item.  While it may not replace the senses involved in viewing something in person, a printed or online catalogue seems to work just fine – at least for those in the art world willing to buy without inspection.  If the auction houses can sell multi-million dollar pieces of art sight unseen (or only seen in a catalogue,) then the internet should not be handicapped by an inability of the buyer to fully assess the tangible aspects of a piece of art.  This is why I believe that the more advanced a web site is in terms of presenting artwork, for example, videos, high pixel digital images from different angles, etc., the less important an in-person inspection is for the buyer.  Artnet's web site, with its multiple photos from different angles and zoom feature, is a good example of how the buyer can ascertain the tangible aspects of art being sold online without seeing it in person.

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