The claim, filed in a district court in Dallas, involves accusations that collectors’ cataloguing app Collectrium took data from Heritage for its own database.
Heritage alleges that three million listings were ‘scraped’ from its auction catalogues and is seeking redress under a US law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Collectrium was founded in 2009 and was bought by Christie’s last year for $16m. With offices in New York and London, it offers art collectors a system to manage their collections via an online art inventory.
It recently launched a new database, created from collecting data across the internet and compiling it in a single place. Collectrium’s website states it has more than seven million auction results and 27,000 collectors.
Contacted by ATG, Collectrium said it could not comment on the matter.
A Christie’s statement said: “We are reviewing the allegations against Collectrium, a wholly independent subsidiary of Christie’s, and will withhold any further comment regarding the beta product in question at this time.”
The technique of aggregating data from websites across the internet into one place is commonly used by a variety of price comparison companies, such as travel or hotel websites offering details of deals available from different companies.
