Auctionata

Last updated
Auctionata AG
Company type AG
Industry Online auction
Founded2012
FounderAlexander Zacke, Susanne Zacke
Defunct2017
Headquarters
Berlin
,
Germany
Area served
Global
Key people
 Thomas Hesse (CEO), Alexander Gilkes (CIO), Lucas Hulsmann (CFO), Osman Khan, Jan Thiel, Johannes Riedl,
Products Livestream Auctions, Online shopping, Online auction
Services Art valuation
Revenue$150 million (2015) [1]
Number of employees
approx. 120 (as of June 2013 excl. experts)
Website auctionata.com

Auctionata was an online auction house and eCommerce company specializing in luxury goods, art, antiques and collectibles based in Berlin with offices in New York. Auctionata had a team of 250 art experts who worked on commission and were not directly employed by Auctionata. [2] These experts were paid by the minute via PayPal [3] for valuing, authenticating, and curating objects including art, cars, watches, antiques. [4] Since opening in February 2012, Auctionata had evaluated and verified over 21,000 pieces of art. [5] Notably, Auctionata's experts discovered a watercolor by Egon Schiele, which was valued at a starting price of $1.3 million (€1 million). [6] Auctionata was declared insolvent on February 29, 2017 by announcing it had ceased operations.[ citation needed ]

Contents

History

Auctionata was founded in 2012 by Alexander Zacke, Susanne Zacke and Georg Untersalmberger with investment capital provided by the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group and the Otto GmbH Group. [7] The online shop was launched in September 2012, [8] and Auctionata's first auction was held in December 2012. [9]

On 22 May 2013, Auctionata announced a strategic partnership with Chrono24, a large specialty marketplace for luxury watches. This partnership included 52 auctions over several years. [10]

In February 2013, Auctionata raised $20.2 million of funding through investment firms Earlybird Venture Capital, E.ventures, Bright Capital, Edward Shenderovich of Kite Ventures, as well as with previous funders Holtzbrinck, Otto and the Raffay Group. [11] [12]

In March 2015, Auctionata raised €42 million ($45 million) from a group of investors led by Bernard Arnault, the Polish private equity fund MCI Management SA and the Hearst Media Corporation. [13]

According to media reports, Auctionata could not pay its employees in December 2016 after expected financing had not arrived. [14] Auctionata filed for preliminary insolvency on 16 January 2017 [15] and had to let go over 70 employees. [16] Following the conclusion of its preliminary insolvency proceedings on 28 February 2017, Auctionata had ceased its German operations. The subsidiaries Paddle8 in the US and Value-my-Stuff in the UK were subsequently sold and continued to operate. [17] Auctionata is included in a list of the top 189 startup failures. [18]

Technology of live stream auctions

Prior to every auction, Auctionata provided information for all items to be auctioned on its website. The auctions themselves were held in a TV-studio and streamed live on the internet using a content delivery network. The auctions were led by a licensed auctioneer and bids are accepted by phone, online, by absentee bid, as well as from the studio floor. Auctionata used a system developed by its founders, Zacke and Untersalmberger, allowing it to transmit the live video stream from the auction using a Real-time operating system without delays. [19] According to the founder, Alexander Zacke, the technology of live auctions primarily was developed to compete with multinational auction houses, including Christie's and Sotheby's. [20] Since potential bidders no longer have to physically attend the auctions, Auctionata's online auctions have been criticized for not promoting the same aura as may be found in traditional auction houses. [21]

Notable auctions

In December 2012, Auctionata auctioned the painting "Roses II", which is attributed to Oskar Kokoschka. Though the painting had been sold to the Bremen tobacco entrepreneur Wolfgang Ritter for 80,000 deutschmarks in 1966 (approx. €151,469 / $204,679 taking into account inflation), and Kokoschka himself wrote a handwritten note of authenticity for the painting, the painting's authenticity was later being questioned by the Oskar Kokoschka Foundation. Auctionata published the Foundation's critique immediately upon receiving it and the painting eventually sold for only $9,975 (€7,500). [22]

Auctionata also auctioned a newly discovered watercolor, "Reclining Woman" by Egon Schiele. [23] The painting was sold for $2.4 million (€1,827,250), the highest grossing piece of fine art sold at an online auction. [24]

Online auction world record

On June 23, 2015, Auctionata sold a rare enamel, ivory-mounted, and paste-set musical and automaton clock from the late 18th century for 3.37 million euros ($3,8 million) to the Shanghai-based billionaire and art collector Liu Yiqian. [25] A new online auction record was achieved in August 2020 when RM Sothebys sold A Ferrari 550 GT1 Prodrive which achieved $4.29 million. [26]

Notable mergers and acquisitions

On September 25, 2015, Auctionata bought the London-based valuation website Valuemystuff.com, founded by Patrick van der Vorst, one of the largest online valuation companies in the world with over 469,000 valuations and 400,000 customers (stats as of November 2017). [27]

On May 12, 2016, Auctionata and Paddle8 announced that they will merge. The merged company had a turnover of more than $150 million. [28]

Awards

At the 2012 Digital Life Design conference Auctionata was awarded the Digital Star Award as one of the most promising German internet start-ups. [29]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Egon Schiele</span> Austrian painter

Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele was an Austrian Expressionist painter. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude self-portraits. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterize Schiele's paintings and drawings mark the artist as an early exponent of Expressionism. Gustav Klimt, a figurative painter of the early 20th century, was a mentor to Schiele.

Jeremy Michael "Jay" Jopling is an English art dealer and gallerist. He is the founder of White Cube.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leopold Museum</span> Museum of modern Austrian art in Vienna, Austria

The Leopold Museum, housed in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria, is home to one of the largest collections of modern Austrian art, featuring artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, and Richard Gerstl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lentos Art Museum</span> Art Museum in Linz, Austria

The Lentos Art Museum is a museum of modern art in Linz, Austria, which opened in May 2003 as the successor to the Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz.

Norris Embry was an American artist associated with Neo-Expressionism, Art Brut and Outsider Art.

Artnet.com is an art market website. It is operated by Artnet Worldwide Corporation, which has headquarters in New York City. It is owned by Artnet AG, a German publicly-traded company based in Berlin that is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The company increased revenues by 25.3% to €17.3 million in 2015 compared with a year before.

Karsten Greve is a German art dealer, publisher and owner of Galerie Karsten Greve in Cologne, St Moritz, Paris and formerly Milan, specialized in the international postwar avant-garde, contemporary art and photography.

Paddle8 was an online auction house based in New York City selling fine art including Post-War and Contemporary art, prints & multiples, photography, street art and collectibles. Paddle8's sales focus on pieces priced between $1,000 and $100,000, all vetted by specialists for authenticity. Paddle8 had offices in New York, Los Angeles, London and Hong Kong. In 2016, Paddle8 merged with the Berlin online auction house Auctionata. In February 2017, Auctionata declared insolvency and Paddle8 became an independent company once again, before selling to Native in 2018, and then to Facebank AG in 2019. In March 2020, Paddle8 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in New York just one week after the non-profit New American Cinema Group filed a lawsuit against the company for allegedly misappropriating funds from a charity auction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aditya Julka</span> Indian businessman

Aditya Julka is the co-founder and former CEO of Paddle8, an online auction house for fine art and collectibles. In July 2016, Paddle8 announced a merger with Auctionata, with Julka serving as the chief strategy officer for the joint company. Julka previously founded InBioPro and BioAtlantis.

Alexander Mark Heming Gilkes is a British businessman. He is the co-founder of venture studio Squared Circles, which launched in 2020. He was previously the co-founder and president of online auction house Paddle8 from 2011 to 2018, when it was sold to The Native.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otto Kallir</span> Austrian-American historian and author (1894–1978)

Otto Kallir was an Austrian-American art historian, author, publisher, and gallerist. He was awarded the Silbernes Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um das Land Wien in 1968.

The auction house im Kinsky is an important art auction house located in Vienna's Palais Kinsky. The auctioneer of the house is Michael Kovacek.

<i>Dead City III</i> Painting by Egon Schiele

Dead City III is an oil on wood expressionist painting by Egon Schiele from 1911. It was owned by the Viennese cabaret artist Fritz Grünbaum before he was murdered by Nazis and has been the object of high-profile disputes and court battles. Suspected by New York's District Attorney of having been looted by the Nazis, Dead City III was temporarily confiscated from the Austrian art collector Rudolf Leopold after he loaned it to a New York museum in 1998. The ownership history of the painting has been the object of high-profile court cases in which two very different versions of the painting's journey from the Jewish Holocaust victim to the Austrian art collector collide.

Serge Sabarsky was an art collector and art dealer of the 20th century.

Friedrich Maximilian Welz was an Austrian art dealer and Nazi Party member investigated for art looting.

<i>The Duchess of Montesquiou-Fezensac</i> Painting by Oskar Kokoschka

The Duchess of Montesquiou-Fezensac is a 1910 oil portrait by Oskar Kokoschka. In this expressionist work Kokoschka strove to capture the essence of his sitter, a young noblewoman afflicted with tuberculosis, with somber tones and stylized gestures. Among his early portraits, Kokoschka considered the work his most valuable, and as his first work to be acquired by a museum it played a key role in establishing the young artist's reputation. During the Nazi period it was confiscated from the Museum Folkwang in Essen and pilloried in the Degenerate Art exhibition before being auctioned off. It is currently in the collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Karl Grünwald (1899-1964) was an Austrian textiles trader and art collector and owner of one of the largest collection of Impressionist paintings.

References

  1. ↑ Strauss, Karsten. "A Tale of Two Auction Houses". Forbes. Retrieved 25 October 2015.
  2. ↑ Yumpu.com. "auctionata-information-folder-for-us-dealers-art-market-monitor". yumpu.com. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
  3. ↑ "From Berlin, Bringing Art Auctions Online: Auctionata CEO Alexander Zacke (Part 3)". Sramana Mitra. 2014-02-05. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
  4. ↑ Strauss, Karsten. "Online Auctions Hit The Big Time: Breaking The $1.3 Million Andy Warhol Record". Forbes. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
  5. ↑ Wilkinson, Julia. "New Funding and an Egon Schiele: Excitement at Auctionata". AuctionBytes Blog. EcommerceBytes. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
  6. ↑ "Auctionata: Sensationeller Schiele-Fund". Handelsblatt (in German). 10 March 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
  7. ↑ Krisch, Jochen. "Auctionata setzt mit Holtzbrinck und Otto auf Live-Auktionen". Exciting Commerce (in German). Archived from the original on 9 February 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
  8. ↑ Krisch, Jochen. "Auctionata bringt vorab schon mal seinen Shop online". Exciting Commerce (in German). Archived from the original on 8 February 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
  9. ↑ Krisch, Jochen. "Auctionata freut sich über 345.000 € bei der Live-Premiere". Exciting Commerce (in German). Archived from the original on 2013-02-11. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
  10. ↑ "Uhrenauktionen online: Chrono24 und Auctionata schließen Allianz". FocusOnline (in German). 22 May 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
  11. ↑ Wauters, Robin (2 April 2013). "Online auction house Auctionata wins $20.2m from Earlybird, Kite and others". TheNextWeb.com. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  12. ↑ "Entlassungen bei Auctionata". 31 January 2017.
  13. ↑ "Auctionata Raises $45M To Build Out Its Live-Streamed Auction Business" . Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  14. ↑ "Auctionata on the Edge? Startup's Closure Is Imminent, According to German Mag". Observer. 2017-01-13. Retrieved 2017-01-31.
  15. ↑ "Auctionata Files for Insolvency in Berlin | artnet News". artnet News. 2017-01-19. Retrieved 2017-02-01.
  16. ↑ "Entlassungen bei Auctionata". Gründerszene Magazin (in German). Retrieved 2017-02-01.
  17. ↑ "Auctionata Shutters After Failing to Find Investor | artnet News". artnet News. 2017-02-28. Retrieved 2017-03-06.
  18. ↑ "189 Of The Biggest, Costliest Startup Failures Of All Time | CB Insights". CB Insights Research. 2020-01-28. Retrieved 2020-02-12.
  19. ↑ "Computer System for the Exchange of Messages". WIPO Patent Application WO/2012/159665. SumoBrain. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
  20. ↑ Strauss, Karsten (15 April 2013). "Disrupting The World's Great Auction Houses". Forbes. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
  21. ↑ Karich, Swantje (15 July 2013). "Online-Auktionshaus "Auctionata": Die digitale Wende erreicht die Kunst". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 24 September 2013.
  22. ↑ Kronsteiner, Olga (6 December 2012). "Auctionata: Kalkulierter Aufreger". Handelsblatt (in German). Retrieved 19 September 2013.
  23. ↑ Ruthe, Ingeborg (6 March 2013). "Auktion: Millionenbild im Altpapier". Berliner Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 19 September 2013.
  24. ↑ Strauss, Karsten (15 April 2013). "Disrupting The World's Great Auction Houses". Forbes. Retrieved 19 September 2013.
  25. ↑ Forrest, Nicholas (23 June 2015). "Auctionata: at the time Liu Yiqian set the online auction record". Blouinartinfo. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  26. ↑ Block, Fang. "A Ferrari 550 GT1 Prodrive Sells for a Record $4.29 Million in Online Auction". www.barrons.com. Retrieved 2020-11-01.
  27. ↑ Treija, Leva (25 September 2015). "Auctionata acquires valuemystuff and pursues international growth trajectory". EU Startups. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  28. ↑ Douglas, Sarah (12 May 2016). "Auctionata and paddle8 merge in sign of consolidation in online art market". Artnetnews. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  29. ↑ "Digital Star Perspective: Auctionata "Den Kunsthandel online bringen"". Focus Online (in German). 17 January 2013. Retrieved 19 September 2013.

Lalique glass car mascots valued at Auctionata / Paddle 8 by expert G.G. Weiner

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.