France's Senate Commission on the French Art Market and its Attractiveness on 7 March 2018 dominated by Artprice's figures and Artprice's demands - Seite 2

Artprice's constant requests to practice genuine auction bidding on its unique Standardized Marketplace are perfectly reflected in the following text from the SYMEV:

"Auction operators have changed; the world has changed. Our competitors today are not bailiffs, but rather websites where items are sold to clients on their smartphones. We urgently need to restore confidence in our auction market by making it more transparent".

All of Artprice's claims with regard to the prejudice it has suffered since 2012 were effectively corroborated at this Committee meeting, leaving no room for any other interpretation of the facts.

Before January 2012 when Artprice launched its online auction sales activity, its share price had a long-term history above €50, a price that included anticipated revenues from its online auctions.

The anticipations of investors, shareholders and the market regarding the potential of Artprice's online auction activity were confirmed when its first day online offered $700 million in value. Most unfortunately, this positive news was simultaneously undermined by a totally iniquitous Communiqué from the Council of Voluntary Sales stating that the CVV was launching an emergency injunction against Artprice, an injunction that never materialised and which therefore qualifies as false information as defined in France's Monetary and Financial Code.

The economic damage caused by the fake news was immediate and devastating. It wiped more than ten million euros off Artprice's market capitalisation on the first day of activity. However, this damage, illustrated by the stock market graphs from that period, does not take into account the long-term loss of earnings suffered by Artprice and its shareholders since 2012.

These conflicts have all been extensively documented in Artprice's AMF reference documents (articles 4.2.6 and 4.2.7 regarding "Risks and Litigation").

* See below Artprice's press release of 11 January 2012: Artprice Refutes Any Emergency Injunction From France's Auction Market Supervisor, the Conseil des Ventes Volontaires (CVV).

Almost 7 years later, France's Art Market professionals have finally expressed, before the Senate, their acute awareness of the non-competitiveness of the French Art Market and have fully endorsed Artprice's vision of how France can recover its former position on the global Art Market. Artprice's IPR protected Standardized Marketplace®, offering nearly 70,000 works every day, represents a superb opportunity for the French art market and an ideal portal where all Art Market operators are invited to sell their works.