Artcurial Offers $1 Million Alfa Romeo Through Artfact Live! Auction

(Boston, MA and Paris, France) - On February 8, 2009, Artcurial, one of France's premier auction houses, will present a spectacular auction of "Classic and Racing Cars" in Paris. Can't be there? No problem. Bidders anywhere in the world are now able to bid live online through Artfact’s next-generation bidding platform, Artfact Live! Not ready to bid $1 million for a car? You can still enjoy watching all the action on the auction floor in real time using the Artfact Live! platform.

Highlighting the Artcurial auction is a 1929 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750s, with excellent provenance. This vintage gem is estimated at $900,000 - $1,000,000 (€700,000 - €800,000), and requires an opening bid of $800,000. A 2004 Ferrari Enzo is estimated to sell in the same range. Other featured cars include a 1949 Delahaye, a 1953 Ferrari that once belonged to Prince Bernhard of Holland, a 1964 Aston Martin, and a Porsche 911 Carrera. The auction takes place as part of the "Retromobile" expo, which has drawn collectors to Paris annually since 1976. This year, they'll be joined by hundreds, if not thousands, of other auto buffs watching and bidding from home through Artfact Live!

Since eBay Live Auctions ceased operations on December 31, 2008, Artfact Live! has taken the lead in the live auction arena by enabling the world’s most prestigious auction houses to present their auctions online to the global marketplace. Spanning the fine and decorative arts, antiques, and collectibles markets, a sampling of the leading auction houses which have signed
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exclusive agreements with Artfact to host their live online auctions includes Doyle New York, Swann Galleries, I.M. Chait of Beverly Hills, Koller Auctions (Zurich), Lyon & Turnbull (Scotland), Gorringes (UK), Ritchie’s Auctioneers (Canada), and Mallet Japan, to name just a few. Feedback from Artfact’s auction house partners has been resoundingly positive:
“We found using the Artfact system extremely user friendly and we are very happy with it. Please pass on congratulations to all who have worked on our account..." - Vectis, UK
"I just can't believe how good this system is." - Castners Auctions, USA
To date, more than $1 billion in auction value has been scheduled on Artfact Live! by its auction house partners.

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 more than 1,500,000 unique visitors monthly. Artfact’s database now includes more than 44 million complete auction results totaling more than $161 billion in value, including information on more than 500,000 international artists. Artfact’s RFC Systems software helps prestigious auction houses around the world manage their businesses.

Artcurial | Briest - Poulain - F. Tajan is today the foremost Paris auction house covering all areas of the art market. The firm has over 20 individual departments, featuring some of the world’s leading experts and specialists. Located at 7 Rond Point des Champs Elysées, the Hôtel Dassault was built in 1844. It underwent further construction in 1952 when Marcel Dassault first purchased the building.Now the Hôtel Dassault has become a center dedicated to art, unique in Europe today. The neo-classical building has been renovated by top architect Jean Michel Wilmotte in new configurations to showcase art in all its forms. Since end August 2002, the center has re-opened the bookstore, created a gallery to display the Artcurial limited editions, and set up offices for the auctioneers Artcurial Briest Poulain le Fur.


Editor’s Notes:
• Additional background information available.
• Interviews with Doug Ellinger, VP Marketing, dellinger@artfact.com, +1-617-219-1082.
• Complimentary media subscriptions to the Artfact database available.