Giant Christie’s auction house closes its NFT art department

By Hannah Pérez

The British auction house, Christie’s, founded in 1766 and sells art and luxury objects in more than 80 categories, has closed its division dedicated to NFT art sales in the middle of a market decline.

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• The British auction house, Christie’s, founded in 1766, closes its division of digital art.
• Now it will include NFT art sales in a broader category of modern art.
• NFT’s volume is in decline and also collections such as Cryptopunks and Bored Ape.

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The auction house for luxury works of art, Christie’shas closed its digital art department dedicated to handling non -fungible tokens sales (NFT), according to a report by Now media.

Two employees, including Nicole Sales Giles, Vice President of Digital Art, were fired, although specialist Sebastian Sanchez remains in New York, according to the report.

A spokesman for Christie’s familiar with the matter explained that the “Strategic decision”He will make the British auction house 258 years old continue to sell art NFT, but now within the broader art category of the twentieth and twenty -first centuries.

The decision produces a time of cooling for the NFT activity, reflecting the current difficulties of that collectible market in Blockchain. NFT’s volume of operations fell 45% the last quarter to USD $ 867 million, even when sales counts increased 78% to USD $ 12.5 million, as noted COINDESK Based on a report of DAPPRADAR.

Also the prices of popular NFT collections, such as Cryptopunks, Bored Apes and Moonbirdsthat in the past they have sold pieces for millions of dollars, now they change hands in just thousands of dollars while the price of Ethereum –whose Blockchain houses the largest portion of the NFT market– It has increased more than 75% in the last three months.

Despite the descent of this niche, some observers, such as the curator and art collector Fanny Lakoubay, have suggested that Christie’s decision could be related to the “Current contraction of the art market” broader.

Meanwhile, some observers have argued on social networks that the closure could indicate an integration of NFT into contemporary art sales and not a total abandonment of this type of digital art.

Christie’s It has had an important presence in the world of digital assets and web art. In 2021, the auction house carried out the highest sale of NFT art for USD $ 69 million for the piece “Everydays: The First 5000 Days “ From the artist Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, a historical event that put the NFT on the art map.

Christie’s It also launched in 2022 a NFT auction platform, after Sotheby’s It became the first important auction house to do so, and recently, in July, it inaugurated a division dedicated to the sale of real estate exclusively with cryptocurrencies. In addition to NFT, the house has also expanded its digital art spectrum to artificial intelligence (AI) and beyond.

Despite the initial enthusiasm for the NFT, the lack of clear assessment standards and market instability have led to Christie’s To reassess their strategy, integrating NFT in sales of contemporary art instead of maintaining them as an independent category. The closure reflects a decision before a market that has failed to consolidate, while other sectors, such as AI, gain attractive.

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Article written with the help of AI, edited by Diariobitcoin

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