Auction houses join to launch online platform

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In an unprecedented move, six auction houses have joined forces to launch Bidsquare, a new online bidding platform. Bidsquare aims to provide access to a wide variety of property from the country’s leading auctions on an intuitive, easy-to-use website and – for the first time ever – allow collectors and auction houses to do business directly in an online forum.

The site, created by Brunk Auctions, Cowan’s Auctions, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, Pook & Pook, Rago, and Skinner, is a bidding platform where like-minded competitors are coming together for the good of buyers, sellers and auction houses alike.

Bidsquare delivers a broad array of property, from fine art to estate jewellery all vetted by the auction houses, and much of it unavailable elsewhere. The easy-to-use site also boasts a free, searchable database of over 600,000 auction records – and counting.

Brunk Auctions, Cowan’s Auctions, Rago, and Skinner also provide appraisers who appear regularly on PBS’s Antiques Roadshow.

“The founding members of Bidsquare saw a real opportunity to create a site friendly to both buyers and auction houses,” said David Rago, founding partner of Rago. “We came together to fill a void – to provide a trusted platform that offers thousands of choice items at auction.”

“Bidsquare is a game changer,” added Karen Keane, CEO, Skinner, Inc. “We’re providing an unmatched selection of items chosen by leading experts in the field. We are also offering auction houses the opportunity to join an esteemed consortium on a platform that was designed for both quality and transparency. It’s a win/win proposition for the marketplace as a whole.”