while (<DATA>)
{
    chomp;
    my ( $letters, $numbers ) = ( /^(\D+)(\d+)$/ );
    print "$letters\t$numbers\n";
}
__DATA__
art1012387
stuff458353
other432610
[download]

Now that I stop to think about it, you should check if the match is successful and if you really have letters up front. Changing that makes the following while loop:

while (<DATA>)
{
    chomp;
    if ( /^([a-zA-Z]+)(\d+)$/ )
    {
        my ( $letters, $numbers ) = ( $1, $2 );
        print "$letters\t$numbers\n";
    }
    else
    {
        print "No match: $_\n";
    }
}
[download]

Cheers,
Ovid

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