Artnet

Artnet.com is an art market website. It is operated by Artnet Worldwide Corporation, which has headquarters in New York, in the United States, and is owned by Artnet AG, a German public company based in Berlin and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The company made a loss of over €3 million in 2014, part of which was due to costs and damages awarded against it by a court in France for copyright infringement.

Company history

The company was founded as Centrox Corporation in 1989 by Pierre Sernet, a French collector who developed database software which allowed images of artworks to be associated with market prices. Hans Neuendorf, a German art dealer, began to invest in the company in the 1990s; he became chairman in 1992 and chief executive officer in 1995. In the same year the name was changed to Artnet Worldwide Corporation. It was taken over by Artnet AG in 1998. Neuendorf's son Jacob Pabst became chief executive officer in July 2012.

The website

Artnet operates an international trading platform for the art market, including fine arts, decorative arts and design. It provides services allowing its clients to attain price transparency and enabling them to contact galleries directly. The network caters specifically to art dealers, as well as buyers.