Christie's to scale back dedicated NFT department and include digital art within its 20th and 21st century art category
The decision was explained as a "strategic decision" made amid a slump in the global art market, according to local media outlet Now Media.
Christie's reportedly specializes in NFT auctions.
The company has eliminated its art department and laid off two employees, including its vice president of digital art, although it plans to retain at least one digital art specialist.
Christie's, a 258-year-old retailer, has emerged as a leader in the NFT market, selling numerous digital artworks, including Mike Beeple-Winkelman.
Beeple Winkelmann's Everydays: The First 5000
Days” was auctioned in March 2021 and sold for $69.3 million.
In addition, the company will launch an NFT auction platform in September 2022, and will also form a real estate team specializing in crypto assets in July 2023, as it begins to expand into the Web3 field.
Experts believe that the decision is not unrelated to the market situation.
Lakoubay said on X (formerly Twitter) that "this is likely a measure related to the current contraction of the art market."
According to the Art Market Report 2025, published in April by Zeisel-UBS, the size of the global art market in 2024 is estimated to be $57 billion, down 12% from the previous year.
Sales also fell 20% to the $20 billion range. Lakoubay said, "Maintaining a specialty division despite lower revenues is difficult for auction houses to justify."
He explained, "While this is a bad sign, digital art is not yet at a stage of growth and proliferation that is suitable for a traditional secondary market structure." He continued, "Right now, we need to develop the primary market and not rely on traditional collectibles."
"This might be a good time to introduce new digital artists to Tar," he added.
2025/09/09 17:26 KST
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