Abstract: A replaceability index for an artwork is calculated. Search terms relating to the artwork, such as artist name, title, date of work, among several others, are used to search various data sources. These searches retrieve records representing other artworks that are market comparables to the subject artwork. Each record is assigned a score. The total of all the scores is calculated. This sum is divided by the total number of records found and the result is a replaceability index, a value that indicates how abundant or how scarce the subject artwork is. This index may be used by a human appraiser to determine a fair market value of the subject artwork. A search term ranking for an artwork and multiple records representing market comparable artworks are used to identify the most relevant market comparables using what is referred to as ordinal priorities.

Abstract: A process for determining open interest in an artwork and creating an emerging demand graph or chart is described. This is done by displaying information on the artwork for the public to view. An absentee bidding period is set wherein the online platform accepts absentee bids for the artwork. Certain absentee bids are used to calculate an open interest index in the artwork which is used to adjust the emerging demand graph. This open interest index can be used to measure interest in the artwork before the actual auction of the artwork begins. The actual auction is a modified Dutch auction that uses data from the absentee bidding period, such as the highest absentee bid.