Warhol auction at Christie’s nets $17 million – Christies bought WarholArt.com for $6,457 last September

Christie’s, the global auction house, bought the domain name WarholArt.com for $6,457 last September at Afternic.

The domain name WarholArt.com now redirects to http://www.christies.com/warhol/ that is the official website for the Andy Warhol auctions held at Christie’s.

An auction called “Andy Warhol at Christie’s” was held at Christie’s New York on November 12, 2012, to benefit The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.  Proceeds from this first auction in a multi-year, multi-platform partnership between the Foundation and Christie’s realized a total of $17,017,050 for the Foundation’s endowment, enabling the institution to ensure and expand its long-term support of the visual arts.

I am not saying that the purchase of the domain made a big difference to this auction but it didn’t hurt either. And you can never know. Just a single auction purchase referred by the domain name can bring thousands of dollars to the auction house and the foundation. That was a good purchase for Christie’s.