With some delay, Art Cologne is now also responding to its customers' need for online sales. The traditional event in Cologne will activate a "gallery platform" on the Internet until June 4th. On the part of the galleries, all exhibitors who were admitted to the last two editions of the fair may participate free of charge. A “specialist jury” has waved through the “top selection”, as the Kölnmesse explains. The somewhat awkward name of the platform actually suggests an appearance by the galleries in which their offers can be seen compactly at a glance and with which the dealers can also advertise themselves. Instead, the visitor clicks through a series of around 250 individual works in three categories on the less inspired homepage,starting with “classical modern art and post-war art”, whereby the distinction between “contemporary art” and “young art” does not reveal any substantive or economic justification (incidentally, even experienced artists can produce young art).

If you are interested in high prices and do not sort the vertical work columns according to the selection criterion "Standard", but choose "Price descending", you will receive the note "Price on request" with dozens of hits. After all, some gallery owners try to make the most of their appearance by commenting on the works on offer in detail. The platform is "conceptually reduced to the essentials" and enables "collectors worldwide to get a focused overview of the most important and currently available works of art": Hopefully the still most important art fair in Germany does not mean that very seriously. Otherwise it could - as happened around twenty years ago with no apparent self-irony - call itself "Artpole of the World" again.