Artfact.com Acquires Invaluable.com: Expands Leading Global Auction House Database and Softw Artfact, LLC, the leading supplier of marketing services, databases, and software to traditional antiques and fine art auction houses announced that it will acquire Invaluable Group Limited.
art, and other objects sold by more than 1,000 traditional auction houses. Auction houses use the Artfact database to research, catalogue, and appraise objects prior to auction, and its website, www.artfact.com, provides auction houses with a marketing channel to publicize upcoming auctions and completed auction results to more than 50,000 subscribers and millions of occasional users.
In 2004, Artfact became an Authorized eBay Live Developer to offer live internet auctions to traditional auction houses using the eBay Live Auctions platform. Today, Artfact provides its proprietary eBay Live auctions software and support service exclusively to more than 50 discerning fine arts and antiques auction houses worldwide with annual sales of approximately $500 million.
In 2006, Artfact merged with RFC Systems, a Company founded in 1987 by Rod Funston, and the leading provider of enterprise software developed specifically for the fine art and antique auction house industry. RFC’s systems are in use in four languages around the globe at leading auction houses including Spink, Gorringes, Lyon & Turnbull, Cooper/Owen, Martel Maides, and Holt’s in the U.K.; Artcurial and Tajan in France; Galerie Koller in Switzerland; Doyle-New York, Eldred's, Freeman Fine Arts, Leslie Hindman, Swann, Sloan's and Kenyon, Weschler's, William Bunch Auctioneers, and Willis Henry in the U. S.; Louis C. Morton in Mexico; and Lawson-Menzies and Cromwell's in Australia. RFC System's software automates every aspect of running an auction house including inventory management, customer and consignor relationship management, auction accounting and reporting, catalogue publishing, custom website design and hosting, and fulfillment.
In addition to auction houses, Artfact’s database subscribers are comprised of antiques and art dealers and galleries, collectors, appraisers, museums, and other scholars that rely on its powerful search technology and leading database to conduct sophisticated market analyses of all facets of the art and antiques markets. Subscribers include members of the International Society of Appraisers, American Society of Appraisers, Appraisers Association of America, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Library of Congress, Internal Revenue Service, Henry duPont’s Winterthur Museum, Chubb Corporation, Leigh Keno American Antiques, The Antiques Roadshow, Colonial Williamsburg, Smithsonian Institute, New York Public Library, The Frick Art Reference Library, and State Farm Group.
About Invaluable Group Limited:
Founded in 1989, Invaluable is the leading provider of auction results databases and associated subscription services in the United Kingdom, primarily through its website at www.invaluable.com. Invaluable has more than 150 auction house partners for whom it provides a portfolio of data and marketing services.
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Editor’s Notes:
o Additional background information available.
o Complimentary subscriptions to Artfact are available to qualified media.
o Interviews with Adam Kirsch in the U.S. or Rod Funston in the U.K. can be arranged.
