Sotheby's and eBay Inc. have launched a joint auction site that was first announced in January. The site will host auctions of authenticated and guaranteed fine art, antiques and collectibles. The new site features the same collecting categories of fine and decorative art, antiques, rare books, jewelry and collectibles previously offered on Sothebys.com. Property posted to the new site will come from Sotheby's and its network of dealers and regional auction houses around the world, as well as selected former eBay Premier dealers.

"We are pleased to welcome Sothebys.com and its network of worldwide dealers and auctions houses to the eBay community," said Meg Whitman, president and CEO of eBay. "Sothebys.com on eBay presents exciting new opportunities for our users to purchase some of the world's finest art, antiques and collectibles."

Sotheby's will adopt eBay's Live Auctions technology to enable real-time online bidding for a significant number of Sotheby's traditional auctions held in New York and London. This technology will allow eBay users to participate in Sotheby's traditional auctions by bidding online in real time from the location of their choice. The first of such sales will be the 1933 Double Eagle twenty dollar gold coin on July 30th at 6:00pm in New York. The coin is the most valuable gold coin in the world.

eBay purchased Sotheby's competitor, Butterfield & Butterfield, in 1999. The high-end auction houses have had difficulty finding profits in the online world. Sotheby's auction house is majority owned by A. Alfred Taubman, who recently announced plans to sell his share of the company. Taubman was convicted of price-fixing in April (see http://www.auctionbytes.com/pages/abn/y02/m06/i04/s01).