Christie’s closes its dedicated digital art department

Christie’s auction house is closing its specialized digital art department, which was a key strategic part of the company and instrumental in establishing the NFT market into global spotlight.

As a result, some key staff will leave the British auction house, according to sources close to the developments, casting doubt on the future of its on-chain initiatives.

Christie’s will continue in the digital art sector

The restructuring exercise has reportedly seen two employees let go at the end of last month. These include the department’s vice president of Digital Art, Nicole Sales Giles, who confirmed the news to Now Media.

A spokesperson for Christie’s revealed in an official statement that the move was more of a strategic realignment as opposed to a total withdrawal from the space.

“Christie’s has made a strategic decision to reformat digital art sales,” the spokesperson told Now Media.

“The company will continue to sell digital art within the larger 20^th and 21^st Century Art category.”

Christie’s spokesperson.

The move reportedly marks a sharp reversal from the auction house’ stance just a few years ago. The auction house in March 2021 ignited an NFT bull run with a record shattering $69 million sale of digital art work – “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” by the artist Beeple.

The sale was reportedly credited with legitimizing NFT and position traditional art institutions as key players in the nascent digital market.

This also comes as part of wide-spread changes under the auction house’s new chief executive officer Bonnie Brennan, who took over as CEO in February this year.

Dissolving the department has raised questions about the future of the auction house’s dedicated on-chain auction platform known as 3.0, which was launched in September 2022.

The auction platform was a flagship of a project that the digital art team, which had also fronted exhibitions and partnerships among them “Getway” events with Now Media during Art Basel Miami and Frieze Seoul.

The decision comes amid a challenging time for the digital art sector

Christie’s strategic shift does not occur in isolation as it comes at a tough time for the digital art sector, which has seen platforms like MakersPlace, KnownOrigin, and Async Art shut down over the past two years amid a cooling market.

For Christie’s, the rise in AI in art creation has also created problems for the auction house as the battle between artists and AI companies continue to intensify.

As earlier reported by Cryptopolitan, the auction house was in the middle of a storm in February when thousands of artists came together to stop the renowned auction house from sale of AI generated art arguing this was “mass theft” of human creativity.

This was not the first nor last case, reflecting conflict over the use of AI technology in the art and entertainment industry with artists complaining over various issues like copyright infringement.

One of the prominent cases involved a group of artists that took Meta to court in 2023 over allegations that the social media giant was misusing their books to train AI models, particularly Llama, which powers its chatbots.

While the auction house is expected to continue to offer digital works, folding them into its broader contemporary art sales signals a move away from the standalone and specialized focus that defined the market’s peak.

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