Hollywood superstar Leonardo DiCaprio, an internationally acclaimed collector of contemporary art, recently invested in a mobile art app called "Magnus- Shazam for Art". Shazam-Magnus is an app for art lovers to identify artworks by taking a picture of the work; the app analyzes the image to find its title, artist, exhibition history and even the auction price.
Magnus Resch, the eponymous founder of the app, created the app to open up the information of the art market to the general public. Consumers who are interested in collecting work have to go through art galleries to do price comparison, promoting transparency in the art market and helping art collectors worldwide. Magnus also emphasizes that this app is free of fees or charges, a change from previous art websites offering similar services. However, in 2016 the app did go through several copyright issues. Soon after the app was founded, three German galleries as well as the websites Art Facts and Artsy accused Magnus of stealing their information. Magnus was removed from Apple's App Store, only to return to the store in November after dealing with the complaints.
Magnus can be linked to its user's Facebook accounts, making the app's login process easy and streamlined. If Magnus cannot find the correct information to match the image, the image is sent to the app's staff to do further analysis. Magnus also provides recommendations and information regarding nearby galleries and exhibition using location services. Magnus is, however, still in the data-collection phase; works by well-known European and American artists dominate the majority of effective search data. But with the investments of superstar Leonardo DiCaprio, Magnus is expected to expand and attract the attention of more investors.
Note: Shazam is the most popular mobile app in the world; it uses a music database and sound analyzer to identify songs that are playing
Figure 1: Leonardo DiCaprio © Leonardo DiCaprio
Figure 2 Left: Check Georg Baselitz prices
Figure 2 Top Right: Founder Magnus Resch © Courtesy of magnus.net
Figure 2 Lower right of the chart: Check Georg Baselitz prices
