Christie is closing its digital arts division and splits with Nicole Sales Giles, vice president of digital at auction house Now media Reported on Monday.
Sales Giles confirmed the news Now mediaalthough a Christie spokesman told the news site that the company has made a “strategic decision to reformat digital art sales.”
The spokesperson added: “The company will continue to sell digital art in the larger 20th and 21st century art categories.”
The move comes more than four years after Christie staged a record buzzer for sale Daily: First 5000 days (2021) set a record of the highest price of digital art for $69.3 million. The auction is also the first NFT sale of the home and has been widely praised for igniting the 2021-22 NFT boom.
But 2025 is far from that madness. In the years since, the NFT market has collapsed and has never recovered. Christie reported NFT sales of $5.9 million in 2022, down 96% from 2021. In August 2024, a report found that 95% of NFTs were actually “dead” and that the average owner lost 44.5% of their investments.
Last year, Christie’s main rival Sotheby’s fired at least four employees from its Metaverse and other NFT divisions, leaving only Michael Bouhanna, vice president and head of Digital Arts and NFTS; pre-sale coordinator Davis Brown; and another staff member.
Christie did not respond to a request for comment at press time.
