GENEVA.- Artmyn, the Swiss artech company reshaping the way art is experienced, promoted and secured online, today announces a $4 million fundraise in convertible notes co-led by online marketplace for fine art, antiques and collectables Invaluable and original investors. The company will use the funds to deploy its unique scanners at Invaluable’s partner auction houses across the world by the end of the year. In addition to the existing scanning capacities, the devices are now also equipped with a new infrared feature, which allows to capture underlayers, sketches and markings underneath the visible surface of an artwork.
Until today in the art world, infrared analysis was reserved to rare works, and upon request only - Artmyn not only automizes this procedure during the scanning process, but also makes it completely safe, and at no additional cost. As a result, we expect a lot of unforseen discoveries, from secret touch ups and preliminary drawings to hidden signatures or dates, to an entire painting hidden underneath the surface of a canvas. This of course, is a major step forward for when it comes to expertisation, authentication and the overall available information about an artwork, » said Artmyn co-founder and CEO Alexandre Catsicas.
As part of the investment, Invaluable CEO Rob Weisberg will join the Artmyn Board of Directors.
The move – an expansion of an exclusive year-long partnership between Invaluable and Artmyn - is aimed at dramatically changing how art is experienced, bought and sold at auction, said Weisberg.
“We’re excited to invest in Artmyn because the combination of its incredible technology with Invaluable’s marketplace of the world’s top auction houses will revolutionize the art market. It will allow auction houses to treat every artwork like a masterpiece,” said Weisberg.
“This technology will give our auction house partners a new, powerful and unique tool to win consignments, drive sell-through and vastly improve the digital art buying experience. It adds value at all stages of an auction house sale-cycle. This investment also directly addresses two critical areas in the online art market - transparency and buyer confidence,” he added.
Artmyn’s proprietary hardware and technology captures tens of thousands of photographs with different light sources and spectrums. Ultraviolet light allows to see restorations and other surface changes yet invisible to the naked-eye, whereas the recently added infrared feature allows to see details hidden under the visible top layer. Artmyn’s scanners produce an interactive ultra-high resolution view of the artwork with over 1.5 billion pixels, and an immersive video, browsable with different light orientations, under visible light, ultraviolet, and now infrared. (LINK VGT)
Until today, in the absence of the physical artwork itself, buyers, sellers and art lovers relied on 2D images to discover art - a means which does not transmit the entire range of emotion the artwork has to offer, and does not allow appreciation of texture, technique and gesture of an artist. More importantly for art dealers and buyers, a two-dimensional image often makes it difficult to make a purchase decision, as a flat image simply does not convey sufficient information regarding the artwork’s condition and authenticity. Artmyn’s technology is designed to fluidify the art market and boost online sales by removing the limitations of plain 2D images.
“Artmyn offers our clients a unique way to showcase artworks online when they are up for auction and hence, to attract more buyers. This technology is going to help create the art marketplace of the 21st century,” said auction house
Tajan’s Head of Communications and Marketing Romain Monteaux-Sarmiento.
In terms of security and transparency, the scanner captures the DNA of an artwork, generating a digital fingerprint that makes the original impossible to forge. The digital file facilitates research and identification in case of theft, disappearance or damage. It also allows dealers and owners to monitor the condition of a given artwork over time - after a shipment, a storage or a restoration, among other events.
“This technology provides me with unmatched tools for expertisation and a highly accurate way to determine the condition of an artwork before and after transportation or an exhibition. This is crucial information in case of insurance litigations.” Pierre-Antoine Héritier, Fine Art restorer at the Geneva Freeport.
In May 2019, Artmyn opened a new digitization center in Geneva’s Freeports, a warehouse complex that is said to concentrate the greatest amount of art of any storage in the world. The scanning center caters to private owners, professionals such as gallerists and artists, and cultural institutions including museums and foundations.
Founded in 2016 by Alexandre Catsicas, Loic Baboulaz, Matthieu Rudelle, and Julien Lalande, the company recently hired former Christie’s auctioneer Gregoire Debuire, operating for Artmyn out of Paris.
