Artspace.com, one of a wave of online art dealers that is starting to change the way contemporary art is bought and sold, said on Monday that it had raised $2.5 million from a group of investors. Additionally, it said, it had signed up several prominent museums and galleries – among them the New Museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia and the Mexico City gallery kurimanzutto – as partners that will offer works to buyers through the Web site.
Founded last March, Artspace sells prints, photographs and some sculpture and unique pieces by well-known and emerging artists, with prices ranging from $100 to more than $20,000. Proceeds from the sale of pieces offered by museums and other art nonprofits help to support those institutions. Artspace has joined several other online dealers that are beginning to draw art commerce to the Web, including Artnet, which conducts online auctions; the VIP Art Fair, a limited-time virtual fair that began last year and opens Feb. 3 for its second iteration; and Paddle8, which organizes curated online exhibitions with pieces for sale from major galleries.
Artspace already offers works from partners like the Guggenheim, the Brooklyn Museum, the David Zwirner gallery in New York and White Cube in London. Along with the financing from investors, the site also announced that it had hired Andrew Goldstein, the former executive editor of the art news site Artinfo, to serve as Artspace’s editor-in-chief, in an effort by the site to provide more news, educational material and information about artists to prospective buyers.