Christie’s has closed its digital art division and, according to a report by Now Media, has concluded a short-lived, influential experiment that saw an independent token (NFT) lined up alongside paintings, sculptures and other works for the auction house’s art sales.
Two staff members were let go at the end of August, including the vice president of Digital Art Nicole Sales Giles, but the experts at Sebastian Sanchez remain in New York.
Giles played a prominent role at Christie’s Art + Tech Summit in Hong Kong last year.
Giles was the prominent face of Christie’s digital push at the Art+Tech Summit in Hong Kong last year.
There she argued that Christie brought the same discipline of assessment to the NFT, just like painting and sculpture, but there is one important difference.
“What’s unique about digital art is the community engagement aspect, and it definitely works in a way that traditional art never has,” she said at the time.
Others at the summit confirmed that this category is not yet mature.
“At this moment, I don’t think we have a very standardized understanding of the value (of digital art),” said Angel Siyanl, director of Art Basel Hong Kong last year. “That’s why it came out all of a sudden and obviously created that excitement, and that excitement created that awareness.
A year later, the numbers show how fragile the basis is.
NFT volume fell 45% to $867 million in the last quarter, despite a 78% increase in sales, according to Dappradar.
The floor prices for the Blue Chip NFT Collection are well below peak levels. cryptopunks Traded about 46.6 ETH ($210,000); Boring monkey 9.1 Hover with ETH ($41,000) Moonbird Sit at 2.8 ETH ($12,600). In contrast, Ethereum itself has increased 76% to $4,509 over the past three months, surpassing the NFT market.
In X, some observers argued that Christie’s decision reflected simple economics, not surrender. He noted that NFTs are increasingly absorbed into mainstream modern sales rather than being treated as a separate “collectable” category.
This retreat, according to Christie’s tip, is at risk of maintaining add-ons in contemporary art rather than maintaining their own market.
