Owing to the hurdles the global coronavirus pandemic posed on art fairs, the annual art fair of London, Masterpiece London was conducted online as Masterpiece Online. Exhibiting works from 135 galleries, the affair was one of the many art fairs which took to the internet.
Collecting website, Artsy, had hosted the viewing rooms and the e-commerce aspects of the online fair on a microsite. Additionally, Masterpiece Online had also offered a redesigned version of its own website complete with exhibitor bios, images of artworks on sale along with contact details. However, the site did not provide a purchasing platform. Virtual attendees could watch videos made by dealers and schedule a private viewing of up to six people with an expert for a guided tour, informed the fairâs managing director, Lucie Kitchener.
Referring to the fairâs mission since its inception to encourage a mix of eras, styles, and media (widely known as cross-collecting), the chairman of Masterpiece London, Philip Hewat-Jaboor, said, âTo me, the challenge was to preserve the ethos of the fair : cross-collection, educational and very high quality.â âWeâre going to have to learn to appreciate the complexities of art online, though it will never ever replace having an object in your handâ, he added. The organizers felt that having the fair online could âattract new peopleâ and âbe a net positiveââ âWe can hook people who wouldnât engage otherwise, because of time or travel constraints. I think thereâs a pent-up demand for thisâ, told Hewat-Jaboor to Ted Loos of The New York Times.

âGlobustischâ or a globe-form work table in mahogany done in the Biedermeier style around 1820 was displayed in the virtual booth of Thomas Coulborn & Sons. Copyright image via Thomas Coulborn & Sons
The Dickinson gallery of London and New York took a âhybrid approachâ and hung its London space as a replica of a booth at the Masterpiece, allowing for online attendees to watch a video of the installation. The Dickinson presented two themed virtual rooms of which one was âartists inspired by travelâ, and the other was âCubismâ, informed Emma Ward, one of the galleryâs directors.

Giovanni Paolo Panini’s âRome, The Pantheon, A View of the Interiorâ (1734) was in one of the virtual rooms of the Dickinson gallery of New York and London. Copyright artwork via Dickinson
Photography dealer, Peter Fetterman of the Peter Fetterman Gallery displayed what he described as âthe most beautiful print I have ever seenâ – The Dream (Mary Ann Hillier) by Julia Margaret Cameron from 1869 – along with Henri Cartier Bressonâs Queen Charlotteâs Ball (1959) and other images. While Fetterman missed his daily walks in Chelsea to the fairâs usual location in Ranelagh Gardens, he said that Masterpiece Online was âstill a wonderful opportunity to keep in touch with all the sophisticated English clientsâ they had made there over the years. âMy new mantra is âEmbrace change; itâs good for youââ, he added.

âThe Dream (Mary Ann Hillier)â Julia Margaret Cameron (1869). Copyright image via Peter Fetterman Gallery
Amsterdam based collector, Elsbeth van Tets, informed that she was encouraged by the online auctions at Sothebyâs, where two noted dealers, Danny Katz and Rafael Valls, were sold entirely online. In comparison to their usual prices at the European Fine Art Fair, van Tets noticed that the artworks were sold online at higher prices, which was âproofâ to her that it could work if âpresented wellâ. âPeople were stuck at home and desperate to buyâ, she concluded. For Masterpiece Online, she looked at works on behalf of Amsterdamâs Rijksmuseum.
London based lawyer and collector, Andrew Jones said that the virtual rendition of Masterpiece London was âa big leapâ but he was open-minded. He said that art fairs and trades are âabout relationshipsâ and he would consider virtual chats with dealers because he would rather buy from someone he has talked to a few times. âThe trust side of art fairs is really importantâ, he said.
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