On March 21, 2009, I.M. Chait Gallery/Auctioneers, will present a spectacular “Natural History Auction” featuring rare and exotic dinosaur skeletons, fossils, meteorites, gemstones, and mineral specimens. This year represents the first time Chait’s Natural History Auction will be available to bidders and interested viewers around the world live online, exclusively through Artfact Live!, Artfact’s industry leading online auction bidding platform. If you can’t be part of the action in New York City on March 21st, simply visit Artfact.com, the largest global marketplace of fine and decorative arts, antiques, collectibles and estate auctions, to register free to bid on a rare dinosaur or gemstone specimen. If you’re not ready to bid, watch the activity live from the auction floor using the Artfact Live! console with audio and video.
Highlighting the I.M. Chait auction is a rare skeleton of a 150 million year-old Jurassic Age Dryosaurus, one of only two of its kind in the world, estimated at $440,000 – $500,000, and requiring an opening bid of $220,000. The skeleton of a juvenile Woolly Mammoth, estimated at 18,000 years old, is expected to sell between $80,000 – $100,000, and a Mosasaur skeleton found in The Netherlands is expected to fetch a similar price. Other featured lots include a rare, brightly colored Ammonite gem, a crystallized gold nugget, a rare pink-hued Kunzite crystal, a Raptor leg, a Mammoth tusk and a Campo Del Cielo meteorite featuring a naturally formed hole, found in Argentina.
Since the departure of eBay Live Auctions, Artfact Live! has taken the lead in the live auction arena by partnering exclusively with the world’s most prestigious auction houses to host live online auctions. In addition to I.M. Chait, Artfact’s ever-expanding list of premier auction house partners includes Doyle New York, Swann Galleries, Koller Auctions (Zurich), Lyon & Turnbull (Scotland), Gorringes (UK), Ritchie’s Auctioneers (Canada), and Mallet Japan, to name a few.
Feedback from Artfact’s partners has been resoundingly positive. I.M. Chait declares, “We had been so tremendously worried about losing e-Bay Live… then, ‘lo and behold’ it all worked. We much prefer Artfact Live!…” Castners Auctions raves, “I just can’t believe how good this system is, ” and Vicky Weall of Vectis Auctions Ltd. in the UK, agrees, “We found using the Artfact system extremely user friendly and we are very happy with it.”
Background:
Artfact is the largest global marketplace of fine and decorative arts, antiques, collectibles, and estate auctions. Artfact Live!, Artfact’s proprietary live auction bidding platform, enables users to bid real time on auctions being held around the world by its prestigious auction house partners. Currently, over 1,000 fine auctioneers actively list their catalogues with Artfact.com and its U.K. sister site Invaluable.com. The Artfact community has grown to more than 10 million knowledgeable collectors and dealers worldwide and the Artfact.com and Invaluable.com websites now have close to 2 million unique visitors monthly. Artfact’s database now includes more than 50 million complete auction results totaling more than $190 billion in value, including information on more than 500,000 international artists. Artfact’s RFC Systems software helps prestigious auction houses around the world to manage their businesses.