It's iPhone Impressionism, courtesy of Christie's

By Chris Michaud

NEW YORK (Reuters) - In a bid to bring art to the digital age, Christie's is rolling out a new application to bring Impressionists to the iPhone.

The auction house, a purveyor of fine art, jewellery, wine, decorative objects and pop culture memorabilia, will begin reaching out to a global community of Apple mobile device users with a draw never envisioned by Picasso, let alone Monet or Renoir.

Virtual versions of Christie's catalogues, with high-quality images of lots on offer, and real-time sales results lead the new app's features. It also allows users to submit objects for appraisal by Christie's specialists using the iPhone's camera function.

Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices will be able to zoom in on and rotate any object on offer from some 450 auctions.

Eventually the auction house hopes to add a live-bidding component.

The free application will be available through Christies.com, via here, the company's Facebook and Twitter audiences, and to iTunes App Store visitors. The official announcement of the application and its availability was set to be made on Wednesday.

The new application seeks to tap into the increasing reliance of the global auction world's clientele on mobile devices, said Michael O'Neal, Christie's director of digital media.

"We hope to attract new clients but the goal is also to provide a convenient tool for current clients, should they be open to the technology," O'Neal said.