Amazon on Tuesday announced the launch of Amazon Art in collaboration with more than 150 art galleries and dealers across the US. Customers will now have access to over 40,000 works of fine art from nearly 5,000 artists, making it one of the largest online collections of original and limited edition artwork available for purchase.

The new portal includes art from several well-known galleries including Paddle8 in New York, Holden Luntz in Miami, McLoughlin Gallery in San Francisco, Modernbook in San Francisco and Catherine Person Gallery in Seattle.

In a press release on the matter, Amazon said the store features easy-to-use discovery tools to help open the art world to customers and offers detailed information about each piece. That could very well be one of the features the retail giant used to help persuade galleries and dealers to accept the idea in the first place.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Amazon wanted to open the store last month but ultimately faced trouble getting the art community to sign up. Dealers and galleries reportedly were concerned that Amazon wouldn't be able to offer the "tasteful presentation" to sell artwork. With today's launch, it seems the two sides have worked out their differences.

Fine art has traditionally been a tough sell online as evident by Amazon's own trial more than 10 years ago as well as eBay's attempt. That same report noted Amazon's cut from the sale of each piece would be between five to 20 percent.