Sothebys.com operated from 2000 to 2003, during the tail of the dot-com boom in the economy threatened by recession and at a time when the art market was generally depressed. Historically, luxury goods are sold well during the recession, and traditional business auction Sotheby also did poorly at the time. Sotheby's Holdings had a net loss of $ 42 million in 2001 and a net loss of $ 55 million in 2002. In order to issue even worse, management Sotheby was distracted by a long and well-publicized price-fixing trial that led to the chairman of the company sent to prison, Sotheby pays settlement over a quarter of a billion dollars, and the reputation of the company were in tatters. As Sothebys.com was closing, Wall Street Journal said that "the head of the art market history," is coming to an end. Sothebys.com failed magazine argued, because "the owners of generating lots of money - Monet, Warhols, and Chippendale chairs - were not interested in selling them on the internet, and buyers want to buy them there." Expensive work sold better, the magazine says , "real-time sales with glossy print catalogs and elegant polished wood auctioneers wielding gavels". People can easily log in Sothebys.com, but do not want to participate in the competition, "not looking, touching, and feeling that unique thrill obtained in the presence of something ineffably beautiful and satisfying. "Selling art" work is not intrinsically suited for the Internet. " Is there a crash Southebys.com means that the Internet is unsuitable for sale of fine art? "Hide
by John McMillan, Eiichiro Kasumori Source: Stanford Graduate School of Business 17 pages. Publication Date: August 14, 2006. Prod. #: EC35-PDF-ENG