NEW YORK, NY.- The Baer Faxt announced The Baer Faxt Auction Database, an unmatched trove of information that will enable the art industry to transact with unprecedented efficiency by revealing, in a simple-to-use search engine, who has historically bought or sought specific high-value artworks.
The Database is the inaugural offering of The Baer Faxt’s expanded product portfolio known as The Baer Faxt + (“The Baer Faxt Plus”). The Database, along with the other The Baer Faxt + products that will continue to launch, innovatively expand upon The Baer Faxt’s 27-year history as the art world’s most trusted source for industry intelligence and insights. The rollout of The Baer Faxt + follows the late-2020 announcement that LionTree and the family office of MoMA board member Glenn Fuhrman had invested in The Baer Faxt to allow it “to expand into new channels and pursue other growth opportunities that will further broaden its reach.”
The Baer Faxt Auction Database is intended to be a key supplementary resource to the industry’s existing price comparison databases. Said Josh Baer: “It’s not enough for you in the business to know what a work of art sold for at auction. What’s more important is who bought it—or, perhaps even more valuably if you’re the one looking to sell, the data of who tried to buy it and didn’t get it.” Recognizing that users will also have access to a comprehensive price database, the Baer Faxt Auction Database’s sleek, simple interface features just six pieces of information per result: artist name; artwork title; sale date; lot number (coded with initial of auction house); hammer price; buyer identity; and/or underbidder identity. (Naturally, for some lots, Baer was able to confirm buyer or underbidder but not both).
The Database’s primary audience is the art world professional who may have a comparable work they wish to buy or sell, but it can also be valuable to institutional curators, exhibition organizers, and other individuals seeking to research who has a specific artwork, or the historical stakeholders in a particular artist’s market.
The Baer Faxt Auction Database leverages over two decades of Josh Baer’s trusted onsite reporting at major seasonal sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips. Through 25 years of attending auctions (with 20 evening sales per year and 10 to 15 day sales), Baer has gradually collected thousands of bits of information of who bought or underbid on specific artworks.
The data’s extraordinary accuracy stems not only from the remarkable level of acumen that went into ascertaining and fact-checking the bidder identities in the first place, but also the fact that for 25 years, the data points have been live-reported via The Baer Faxt to hundreds of top players in the art industry. Baer estimates that since 1996, he has received 5 to 10 bidder and underbidder name corrections in total (out of over 10,800 reported during that period), for an accuracy rate of 99.99%.
The Baer Faxt Auction Database is among a series of new market- and education driven products and initiatives that leverage the extraordinary network, knowledge, and acumen Josh Baer has cultivated over the years, both as an art advisor who has facilitated over $500M in transactions and as the proprietor of The Baer Faxt.
