Hasta La Ideas

Can’t make it to Art Basel Miami Beach this year? Be a virtual art collector with s[edition], a just-launched web venture that has convinced contemporary art stars such as Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Shepard Fairey, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, and Bill Viola to take part in a new breed of online gallery. The limited edition works up for sale aren’t tangible&#8212they’re digital images and videos that can be purchased for display on mobile phones, tablets, and computers, or simply hoarded in one’s virtual art “vault.” The London-based company is the brainchild of Harry Blain , founder of Haunch of Venison and Blain|Southern galleries, and Robert Norton, the former CEO of Saatchi Online. Prices range from $8 to download a Wim Wenders photograph of the side of a Safeway supermarket to $800 for one of 2,000 digital editions of Hirst’s “For Heaven Sake,” (above), a diamond-encrusted, platinum baby’s skull that slowly rotates in an HD video. The price includes a digital-watermarked edition and a certificate of authenticity. “We believe that s[edition] allows new global audiences access to works by the world’s leading artists,” said Blain in a statement announcing the site’s launch. “The digital format is one that many artists are already working in, and many more in the future will encompass as a part of their practice.”

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