Artists, galleries, crafters, resellers, buyers, investors and collectors of all kind of art are taking advantage of new techonologies. The emerging trends for artwork have to do with the internet. Online sales and purchases of paintings are becoming very popular in cyberspace, since it is a very smooth way to promote new artists and it offers lots of possibilities to find nice art at all prices, affordable to everyone.
Online art auctions are also known as Art Sales, which is the practice of selling objects of art by auction. In England this dates from the latter part of the 17th century, when in most cases the names of the auctioneers were suppressed. Evelyn mentions a "great auction of pictures in the Banquetting House, Whitehall," and the practice is frequently referred to by other contemporary and later writers.
Before the introduction of regular auctions the practice was, as in the case of the famous collection formed by Charles I, to price each object and invite purchasers, just as in other departments of commerce.
Traditional auctions come from far in the past, but not too much. The first really important art collection to come under the hammer was that of Edward, earl of Oxford, dispersed by Cock, under the Piazza, Covent Garden, on 8 March 1741/2 and the five following days, six more days being required by the coins. Nearly all the leading men of the day, including Horace Walpole, attended or were represented at this sale, and the prices varied from five shillings for an anonymous bishop's "head" to 165 guineas for Vandyck's group of "Sir Kenelm Digby, lady, and son."
Nowadays, there are lots of internet websites where live auctions for paintings, classical or new, take place every day. A simple search on Google or any other search engine will display hundreds of results with online galleries that offer such kind of services, as well as support and traning on how to get the best deals when buying art online.
Also, many young or new artists offer their artworkds for online sale in their personal webpages. The well-known site eBay is another nice place to find auctions or direct sales of art in the internet.