Venture-Backed Art Marketplace
On Approval
"Rent the Runway for Art"
"Rent the Runway for Art"
On Approval has shut down operations. This site serves as a project archive.
On Approval built the infrastructure to make museum-quality art liquid, rentable, and transactable at scale — coordinating 4,000+ original works across 250+ galleries without holding a single piece of inventory.
Seed round led by Freestyle Capital with participation from Signia Ventures, Scott Belsky, Pareto, and Jean Pigozzi.
On Approval set out to do something most e-commerce systems are not designed to handle: enable the circulation of high-value, one-of-a-kind physical assets that neither the platform nor the buyer owned.
What users saw was a familiar retail experience — add to cart, choose subscription, lease-to-own, or purchase. What the system executed was everything required to move fine art between third parties: ownership tracking, insurance binding, custody transfer, and multi-party financial settlement.
Every transaction triggered a coordinated sequence across a national network of specialized art handlers providing white-glove pickup, storage, delivery, and installation.
Because neither On Approval nor the end customer owned the artworks, the company worked with international brokers to design novel insurance structures capable of covering third-party, high-value works in third-party locations — making the entire model viable.
Collaborated with New York-based contemporary artist Adam Parker Smith, the Museum of Art and Design (MAD), and The Hole Gallery to reimagine the possibilities of an online museum exhibition.
The project was brought to life in partnership with San Francisco design firm McFadden & Thorpe.
In addition to the consumer platform, On Approval delivered enterprise-grade art services to Fortune 1000 clients across Luxury Retail & Fashion, Private Equity & Finance, and Architecture & Interior Design.
Engagements ranged from private office campuses in San Francisco, Miami, and Hong Kong to flagship luxury retail stores in New York City and Las Vegas.
For enterprise clients, we sourced and provided curated rotations of museum-grade, blue-chip works not available on the platform — including multi-million-dollar pieces by Andy Warhol, Renoir, Damien Hirst, KAWS, and others — handled through bespoke acquisition, insurance, and logistics workflows.
A site-specific installation by KATSU, Richard Prince, and other artists for Louis Vuitton's Crafting Dreams, presented at 684 Park Avenue in April 2024.
An installation designed by NICOLEHOLLIS, featuring Andy Warhol artworks on loan from Gagosian Gallery.
Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Refik Anadol, & KAWS for Rolex / Bucherer's Las Vegas flagship, Summer 2023.
