Sotheby's moves into AI
January 25 2018
Video: Thread Genius
Sotheby's has bought an image recognition software company, called Thread Genius. The video above shows that the software allows you to search by images and parts of images. The press coverage about the acquisition focuses on how this will help clients, but I suspect at least as useful will be its connoisseurial abilities. Even a reverse Google Image search these days can be scarily effective. The days of Christie's and Sotheby's sending a junior specialist to delve through the Witt Library or the Frick archive, will soon be over.

Categories
- Research
- Exhibitions
- Auctions
- Discoveries
- Conservation
- Heroes of art history
- 15th Century & Earlier
- 16th Century
- 17th Century
- Georges de La Tour at the Musée Jacquemart-André in September
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art acquire Manuel de Arellano portraits from Colnaghi
- Zurbarán Exhibition at the National Gallery in 2026
- Baroque Painting in Rome at Dickinson
- The Dutch Americas - Art Histories of the Atlantic World
- More ...
- 18th Century
- 19th Century
- 20th Century
- 21st Century
- Dior borrows Louvre & NGS Chardin for Summer 2026 Launch
- Pennsylvania College says Sell the Art - 'It's outside of our mission'
- Tate Chairman announces £150m fund for acquisitions and new garden entrance
- Xavier F. Salomon appointed Director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum
- New EU Cultural Property Laws
- More ...