Online art registry for collective gift-buying

A few months ago, we covered nAscent Art, which offers a wedding registry service for original art, allowing friends and relatives to make donations towards buying a piece of art for the happy couple. While nAscent was limited to work by New York artists, Giwaza is a gift registry for any piece of art. Launched as Artmigos.com in 2007, the California-based site now returns rebranded, and with improved functionality and security. Giwaza offers a few ways to go about arranging a collective gift. Visitors to the website can choose a piece from a gallery of work by participating artists and dealers. Alternatively, if anyone spots a piece of art elsewhere that they’d like bought for them, they can submit the details to Giwaza, who will contact the seller to make arrangements for a collective purchase. Finally, consumers who know they want some artwork but haven’t yet decided on a particular piece can set up a fund for donations, and fill in the blanks at a later date. Operating outside the domain of traditional wedding registries—which typically don’t feature a wide range of art—Giwaza paints an attractive picture for celebrants looking for a unique memento for a special occasion. Giwaza takes a commission using a graduated scale: 19% of the first USD 5,000, 13.5% of the next USD 5,000, and so on. When shared between a group of contributors, this may seem a price worth paying for a gift with a status story. Are there other original gifts missing from registries? Spotted by: Andrew Damron