It’s getting much easier to argue that online art galleries are significantly shifting the way art is bought and sold around the world.

Motivated by the chance to view hundreds, even thousands of works at a time, traditional collectors are turning to Web galleries in larger numbers.

“A lot of our clients are very experienced buyers in [bricks-and-mortar] galleries who have, in the last couple of years, transferred their interest in buying art to the Web,” said Allan Majotra, co-founder and managing director of PicassoMio, which operates two regular galleries in Spain and one of the world’s largest virtual ones, PicassoMio.com.

Added Angela Di Bello, director of the Agora Gallery in New York, which also operates the online gallery ArtMine.com, “For collectors who are too busy to gallery hop, the Internet can save a great deal of time. A collector can view hundreds of works of art in minutes, something impossible to do in a gallery.”

But an even bigger change that Web sites are helping to engineer is the introduction of thousands of new collectors—many of whom have never set foot in a traditional gallery—into the art market.

For neophytes, the Web is a much less intimidating way to buy and can be an attractive solution for those who have a strong interest in contemporary art—and can afford to buy it—but are uneasy about visiting traditional galleries.

“Most of our clients are first-time buyers of art,” said Roi Ophir, CEO of ArtToGet.com, which specializes in Israeli artists. “They love art, but until now they were a little afraid to buy. They see the Web as a friendly tool to get information and gain entry to the world of art. Most are spending $1,000 to $3,000 [on their first purchase].”

Rene Goodman, a spokesperson for Buy-Original-Art.com, which maintains a listing of sites that sell art online, said that 70 percent of the people who have contacted the site for advice over the past three years have never visited a regular art gallery. Because traditional galleries don’t always make the art-buying experience comfortable for new collectors, Goodman said, “many beginner collectors are increasingly turning to the Internet to explore and purchase original works of art.”

“The Web is a great tool for beginning collectors,” agreed Paige West, founder of the Mixed Greens gallery in New York, which also has an excellent (and e-commerce equipped) Web site. “Browsing online is a great way for beginners to train their eye. You can go online to find out what you like and don’t like.

“And the Internet offers a lot more affordable art,” West added. “For people who are nervous about making their first purchase, the Web is a good place to start because you’re generally not spending unmanageable sums of money.”

Online galleries are also a great convenience for those who live far from the centers of the art world. “Although we have [clients] from areas such as New York, Los Angeles and Paris, most of our buyers don’t live in major cities,” said Ophir, who also recently opened a bricks-and-mortar gallery, Dollinger Art Project, in Tel Aviv.

Of course, both experienced buyers and new ones can benefit from the fact that online galleries have an infinite amount of virtual wall space and can show an unlimited amount of work from any number of artists. “The selection online is incredibly phenomenal,” said Majotra.

And while actual galleries, with rent to pay, can be understandably leery of mounting a weeks-long exhibition of work by an emerging artist, it’s much less risky to devote a section of a Web site to new talent. This means online galleries can be a great place to discover artists not showing anywhere else.

“Our site has hundreds of promising artists not represented by [bricks-and-mortar] galleries,” said Ophir. “We’re providing both a stage for those artists and an opportunity for audiences to purchase their work.”