Adam Chinn

The former COO of Sotheby’s, Adam Chinn, came into the art world through mergers and acquisitions law and investment banking. His new art platform, LiveArt, with partners Boris Pevzner and John Auerbach, provides a peer-to-peer online space for buyers and sellers of art. He described it to Observer as, “a vertically integrated online platform for both the primary and the secondary art market that will free up supply that hasn’t historically been there.” 

Chinn realized when he got started in the art business that it was behind the times because of the opacity of the market and the difficulty of price discovery. This opacity places a mere 4% of artworks in existence on the market. Chinn told Observer, “If you could increase the liquidity of the market by half a percentage point, you’d have one of the largest art businesses in the world.” 

LiveArt uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to assess the value of an art object—what Chinn calls a “Zestimate for art”—without going to a dealer, a gallery, or an art expert. Through LiveArt, users can get an estimate on their artworks and buy and sell art on their phones on a simple, fun, and user-friendly platform. The LiveArt marketplace had its soft opening on June 8 and opens a group show for emerging artists on June 29.