Fine art auctions: oil paintings, watercolours and sculpture, searched at once
Fine art sells through everything from dedicated Old Master and Modern British sales to small regional auctions where a good painting is catalogued generically as "oil on canvas, indistinctly signed." Attributions get missed, artists go unresearched, and a genuinely good picture can sell for a fraction of its worth simply because the right buyer never saw the listing.
Why fine art lots get missed
Major auction houses' specialist sales are watched closely by dealers and collectors, which is exactly why they're not always where the value is. A well-painted landscape, an unattributed portrait, or a sculpture by a lesser-known name is just as likely to surface in a general regional auction, described only as "oil painting, gilt frame" by a valuer who isn't an art specialist. Checking every platform every day to catch these is unrealistic for one person.
One search across every platform
Auction Bid Assistant's free browser extension searches the-saleroom, EasyLive, Bidspotter, Invaluable, NumisBids, iCollector and LiveAuctionWorld simultaneously, alongside eBay. A search for "oil painting," "watercolour," an artist's name, "sculpture," or "print" returns matching lots across all of them, with images, estimates, current bids where shown, and sale countdowns, sorted by platform in tabs.
Real results for "oil painting": 136 lots found in one search, from framed landscapes to impressionist cityscapes.
It works by searching from inside your own browser, the same as opening and searching each site yourself, just done in seconds. Nothing is stored on our servers, permissions are minimal, and the extension never places a bid on your behalf.
Alerts: for a slow-moving but competitive market
Good fine art lots don't come up often, so when they do, save a search (an artist, medium, subject, or "oil painting" generally) and get emailed the moment a new lot matches it, across all covered platforms including eBay, rather than relying on remembering to check each one.
Want to try before installing?
The same search box works on this website with no install at all for eBay, iCollector, LiveAuctionWorld and Featured Auction catalogues, a quick way to see matching fine art lots before adding the rest of the platforms via the extension.
Built for how art buyers actually work
Save any lot with one click from search results, export your shortlist as a printable PDF or CSV before a sale, and on the day itself the optional live bridge feeds the auctioneer's asking price into the free bid calculator, so your maximum (with buyer's premium and VAT included) is always in front of you.
Browse fine art types
Fine art collecting splits into distinct fields with their own quirks and premiums. Search any of these directly:
Common questions
Can I search fine art auctions across multiple platforms at once?
Yes, the free extension searches the-saleroom, EasyLive, Bidspotter, Invaluable, NumisBids, iCollector and LiveAuctionWorld simultaneously, alongside eBay, from one search box.
Does it cover watercolours, prints and sculpture, not just oil paintings?
Yes, any keyword works, so watercolours, prints, sculpture and other fine art categories search the same way across all covered platforms.
Can I get alerted the moment a new fine art lot is listed?
Yes, save a search and get an email the moment a new lot matches it, across all covered platforms including eBay.
Is the extension safe?
It requests minimal permissions, cannot read your browsing history, only reads publicly visible auction listings, and never modifies pages or places bids. No account, no personal data.