BestShopSites
Bottom Line Rating*

Best Sites
Capsules/Description

Accolades

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Artnet
www.artnet.com

Forbes Review: "An excellent resource for art world devotees....With more than 185,000 artists represented and 1.8 million auction records from over 500 houses, Artnet has become a valuable resource for collectors. It also has a splendid online magazine—a fun read refreshingly free of jargon. There’s impressive international coverage of the gallery scene, museum exhibitions and auction doings. Handy links to services such as appraisers, conservators and framers. Useful links to some hard-to-find art periodicals. The online bookstore, though slow to browse, offers 14,000 art titles. For serious collectors, there’s a comprehensive auction electronic database, but it costs $29.95 a month to subscribe. There's also an e-mail auction alert for artists you're trying to track down, but it costs $59.95 per year." (Forbes--click here for full review)

Forbes Top-Rated Favorite in Best of the Web Forbes 9-11-00

art.com
www.art.com

EW review: "Now, this is service. Search for posters and prints by artist and style, or have this site select for you: Pick a price (from $25 on up), then a subject (broad like "weather" or narrow like "waterfowl"). Specify your decor (Country French, Ultramodern...), even your primary and secondary colors. In seconds, you have the proper selections from the site's 100,000-plus pictures. While you're there, you can also educate yourself on everything from correct framing methods to any of the more than 1,000 artists profiled. So you can talk Dada when you give Daddy that Dali."

"A" & "Best of Breed" : Entertainment Weekly 11-12-99

All Posters.com
www.allposters.com

EW review: "James Bond or Austin Powers? A picture of a tuba or one of a tabby cat? This site has more than 35,000 posters and prints, many for under $20. Forty-four categories cover your craving for Americana or angels, holidays or hobbies. Sign up for the PosterClub and get special discounts--as well as regular shots at winning freebies. Which just leaves the question: Is it okay to hang your Matisse print next to your Bob Marley poster?"

"A" : Entertainment Weekly 11-12-99

next Monet.com
www.nextmonet.com

EW review: "You, an art collector? Certainly. This site has more than 3,500 original paintings and sculptures from artists who may be the next...well, you know. You don't need to be an expert--nextmonet's jury of art historians, professors, and curators reviews artists before allowing them to peddle their creations. These ain't cheapo dorm prints--you'll drop four digits for some--but, of course, uniqueness has its price"

"A" : Entertainment Weekly Fall 1999

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Museum Shop.com
www.museumshop.com

EW review: "Thirty museum stores have their wares featured on this site. Once you choose a category (say, T'ang Dynasty) or click into a specific store, you can score anything from a Degas dancer sculpture from the Baltimore Museum of Art to a Diego Rivera wall plaque from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. You can also plug in a price range with your Secret Santa's stats for gift ideas. A sliver of each purchase helps the museums' programs--one area of arts funding that can't be criticized"

"A-" : Entertainment Weekly 11-12-99

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Art & Auction Online
www.artandauction.com

Forbes Review: "This magazine site seemed to offer a good mix of news on exhibitions, auctions and art-world goings-on fairs. Until we looked at the posting date -- November 15, 1999. Still, the articles are informative and the calendar of galleries, auctions and art fairs is useful. Also provides a link to eBay's Great Collections....Well-written, well-reported" (Forbes--click here for full review)

Forbes Selection  in Best of the Web Forbes 9-11-00

Art History Resources on the Web
witcombe.sbc.edu/ ARTHLinks.html

Forbes Review: "All your art history questions are answered here with a network of resources....From the Venus of Willendorf to the latest work by Damien Hirst, this exhaustive site gives you more information on art history than you ever wanted to know. It's a true labor of love from a professor at Sweet Briar College who wants to hear from you. Click on any art-historical era or subject, and you’ll be rewarded with a vast quantity of recently updated links. Bonus: an impressive set of connections to other resources, such as museums, image banks and artist directories. User-friendly format and not overly academic texts." (Forbes--click here for full review)

Forbes Selection  in Best of the Web Forbes 9-11-00

Art News Magazine Online
www.artnewsonline.com

Forbes Review: "A teaser for the art-world insider’s news magazine. It offers only a tiny sampling of the articles in the excellent print version. When we visited, the posted features included an interesting cover story from the April issue on artists using medical technology to redefine portraiture. Also offers highlights from the ARTnewsletter and searches of back issues." (Forbes--click here for full review)

Forbes Selection  in Best of the Web Forbes 9-11-00

Artnewsroom
www.artnewsroom.com

Forbes Review: "International coverage of exhibits with museum links.....The best part of this British site is the section on stolen art with links to law enforcement agencies such as Interpol and the FBI. Otherwise, it's a mixed-bag of international exhibition reviews and art news that tends to be out-of-date. Expert appraisals of select lots at upcoming auctions, with online bidding capability." (Forbes--click here for full review)

Forbes Selection in Best of the Web Forbes 9-11-00

Artprice
www.artprice.com

Forbes Review: "Excellent comparison guide to prices...If you're eager to check out auction prices, this site should be your first stop. You can search more than 170,000 artists from a database representing 2,000 auction houses in more than 40 countries. Want to see 8,365 records on Picasso? More than 1,700 on Matisse? How about 150 on painter Brice Marden? They are all here, but you have to pay a price: $1 for a single “response unit,” with discounts for additional units." (Forbes--click here for full review)

Forbes Selection  in Best of the Web Forbes 9-11-00

Grove Dictionary of Art
www.groveart.com

Forbes Review: "Excellent resource cross-referenced every which way....The 34-volume dictionary from Grove Publishers is now online. Covering fine arts, architecture and decorative arts, it is a comprehensive resource geared to specialists. There are 45,000 articles (with links embedded in each article), 21,000 biographical entries, 500,000 bibliographical references, and access to nearly 100,000 searchable images. It costs $800 a year for a single business or gallery user with a free 24-hour trial subscription for individuals and 30-day trial period for institutions. Posted on the site are selected extracts from entries such as Chinese furniture, Durer, and Neo-Classicism." (Forbes--click here for full review)

Forbes Selection  in Best of the Web Forbes 9-11-00

Kovels Online
www.kovels.com

Forbes Review: "Talk about self-promotion. Ralph and Terry Kovel, acknowledged gurus of the antiques and collectibles marketplace, use the site mostly to market their print publications. They post helpful snippets from their influential newsletter—connoisseurship tips, trendspotting, fake alerts and the like—and chase each and every one with a subscription pitch. Their massive price database, offering everything from Elvis posters to Delft pottery, is accompanied by a number of free hits." (Forbes--click here for full review)

Forbes Selection  in Best of the Web Forbes 9-11-00

click here for Forbes Reader ratings (#3 ranking in Category)

Maine Antiques Digest
www.maineantiquesdigest.com

Forbes Review: "Covers a lot of ground with solid information and price guide....Yankee collectibles are just part of this information-loaded site. Besides the auction and antique fair listings, there's a free price guide that includes pictures and intelligent commentary on some 12,000 lots. There are annotated databases of dealers and appraisers, which you can search by specialty and state. The generous trove of back articles can be searched by keyword or date of publication. Fun features include snappy news items, a posting site for stolen art and antiques and a deep well of book reviews." (Forbes--click here for full review)

Forbes Selection  in Best of the Web Forbes 9-11-00

Web Gallery of Art
www.kfki.hu/ ~arthp/ index1.html

Forbes Review: "A treasury of images of European art created between 1150 and 1750....Feast your eyes on art. This database serves up one yummy, high-res masterpiece after another—each enhanced by pithy artist bios and interesting facts. Search by artist, time period, country, subject or title. If you're patient, you’ll be rewarded with a high-quality thumbnail that can be enlarged into stunning full-page pictures. Then view related images, start a new search or take one of the site’s educational “tours," such as the easily accessible inventory of Gothic sculpture." (Forbes--click here for full review)

Forbes Selection  in Best of the Web Forbes 9-11-00

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Ansel Adams Gallery
www.adamsgallery.com

EW review: "It doesn't have every photo Adams ever snapped, but it has all the goodies--most for $30. Aspens and redwoods, mountain ranges and morning landscapes are in all their stark glory at this site, which is run by the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite. Be sure to peruse the special-edition section, which sells the only photographs ($150 matted) still being printed from Adam's original negatives. Buy several, and plant your own black-and-white forest"

"B+" : Entertainment Weekly 11-12-99

Artstar
www.artstar.com

Other Sites
Capsules/Description

Link to Reviews

"If you need a quick reference source for an artist's birthday or a quote about painting, then visit this site. But if you're looking for more substantive information, then go elsewhere, or use this site for the links. About.com serves up a healthy dose of art history, but it's pretty superficial stuff. " (Forbes--click here for full review)

"Who exactly are the experts carrying out the appraisals offered by this site? At $100 per item, we ought to know. There is no listing of appraisers' qualifications and no way to judge the quality of their work except by a casual page of testimonials. While the client list is fairly impressive (heavy on insurance companies and state and federal courts), the site is thin on background information." (Forbes--click here for full review)

"Offers hard-to-find books and articles on obscure subjects....From the art of rhinoceros carving in China to Vivienne Westwood's punk-inspired fashions, this site offers an esoteric group of books and magazine articles.... The selections, from the UK publisher of the journal Antique Collecting, cover a wide range of categories within the fields of art, architecture and antiques." (Forbes--click here for full review)

"Links to art journals, images, organizations, and the like that are disappointing -- and often dead. Sites for artists were spotty and those for civilization and historical eras overlapped with the same resources listed again and again. Many topics offered only one or two links, and often were uneven in their level of information. Best links are in antiquities topics." (Forbes--click here for full review)

"This uneven assortment of links originally started in the mid-1990s as a service to art librarians. And if you’re looking to hook into some of the finest art and architecture libraries in the country, this site delivers. But its other categories put forth a motley and only occasionally discerning selection of connections." (Forbes--click here for full review)

"Beautiful images and informative text....This online exhibition and museum education site, courtesy of Intel Corporation, offers some solid content. But it's only for the technically savvy with video power. " (Forbes--click here for full review)

"An ambitious offering of news, articles, consulting services, exhibitions and auctions. Clean and well-designed, it falls short of its art education goals as well as its overblown claims to provide the "most comprehensive art search engine."" (Forbes--click here for full review)

"Collectors looking for chat rooms and cheerleading will enjoy this busy site. Articles on various collecting areas are short on analysis and information and long on promoting whatever the market happens to be, whether it’s beer bottle caps or antique music boxes." (Forbes--click here for full review)

click here for Forbes Reader ratings (#2 ranking in Category)

"...This homegrown site certainly has its strengths. Its Collectors Club Directory offers groups specializing in everything from carousels and canes to tools and trains.... What’s most impressive is the state-by-state listing of collectible fairs and flea markets. There's even a link to bed and breakfasts for those who plan ahead." (Forbes--click here for full review)

"Links to Sweet Briar professor Chris Witcombe's excellent site titled Art History Resources on the Web, by clicking on the Gateway icon at the bottom of the homepage. This site is used to market the art history 101 text, Gardner's Art Through the Ages." (Forbes--click here for full review)

"This one-man site is a mixed bag of art links, thematic gallery tours, and scholarly writings. Most impressive are the more than 2,000 images, which you can easily search by artist or by movement." (Forbes--click here for full review)

"An inviting, well designed site that encourages users to get involved in the historical material....Take the quiz on modern painting to see how much you really know. This fun, interactive site on modern art is put together by students and educators. While the texts are easy to read, they are simplistic and not always precisely written or factually solid." (Forbes--click here for full review)

"Antique lovers will enjoy the range of archived articles on offbeat collectibles, from Indian clubs and cowboy spurs to Madame Alexander dolls and Victorian cameos. Stories are comprehensive, though a bit chatty and uncritical." (Forbes--click here for full review)

"The weird name may be some indication of the site's academic slant. A wealth of links, from museums and map archives to copyright laws and art theory. Unless you're a scholar or diehard grad student, there are not too many gems here. The site, put together by an English professor, seems to lack an art historian's discerning eye." (Forbes--click here for full review)