An art fair on the internet? Absurd or ingenious? Even a technophobe like me knows that the internet is a rich source of innovation, so why not harness this in the interests of the art market? After all, most galleries rely on the website as their portal to a wider public and the jpeg as a key tool of the commercial transaction. Imagine the potential of an online art fair: its vivid simultaneity, its vanishing of geographical limits, its futuristic outlook embracing all that the computer screen and the world wide web has to offer, from sophisticated digital 3D animation, to Skype, to the unlimited social freedoms of Second Life or the encyclopedic cross-referencing capabilities of Wikipedia. With over 7,500 works by over 2,000 artists shown in virtual booths by 138 galleries from across the world to an equally global public, and price tags ranging from “$0–$5,000” to “$1,000,000 and over,” the online-only VIP Art Fair promised visitors the ultimate luxury of “Viewing in Private” (hence the title) and the possibility of spending a million on a Warhol while “Viewing in Pajamas.” Perhaps I had been taken in by the widespread PR hype that preceded the fair, and the impressive list …