In a significant shift within the art auction sector, Christie’s has dissolved its standalone digital art department, marking the end of a notable yet short-lived effort to integrate NFTs and AI-generated artworks into the mainstream. The auction house confirmed that it has opted to restructure its digital art sales and will instead feature these works within the broader context of its 20th and 21st Century Art category.
This restructuring has resulted in the termination of two staff members in late August, including the vice president of digital art, Nicole Sales Giles. Currently, only one digital art specialist remains active in the New York office. The closure of this department underscores the growing challenges faced by both traditional art markets and the digital art sector more broadly.
Recent figures indicate that Christie’s reported $1.5 billion in fine art sales during the first half of 2025, a decline of 1.9% compared to the previous year and nearly 25% lower than levels seen in 2023, as revealed in Artnet’s Mid-Year Intelligence Report. The NFT art market, too, has witnessed a steep downturn, with trading volumes dropping dramatically from $2.97 billion in 2021 to merely $197 million in 2024, according to analysis from DappRadar. Concurrently, several digital art platforms, such as Async Art and KnownOrigin, have ceased operations entirely.
Christie’s was at the forefront of legitimizing digital art in traditional auction environments, making waves in 2018 when it sold the first AI-generated portrait for an impressive $432,500. It further solidified its commitment to the digital realm by launching the annual Art + Tech Summit that same year. A landmark moment for the department occurred in March 2021, when Beeple’s “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” was sold for a staggering $69 million, an event that catalyzed widespread adoption of NFTs within the art world. This success led to the establishment of a dedicated digital art team and the launch of Christie’s 3.0, a blockchain-based platform for collectors, in 2022.
However, subsequent digital sales failed to capture the excitement of that initial success. While Christie’s maintained efforts to host dedicated digital art auctions—most recently featuring an “Augmented Reality” sale showcasing AI art that yielded $700,000—the overall volumes did not justify the continuation of a separate department, as reported by Now Media.
This strategic consolidation echoes a similar move by rival auction house Sotheby’s, which downsized its Metaverse and NFT team last year, retaining only three specialists, including its digital art head, Michael Bouhanna.
The decision to dissolve this department signals the conclusion of Christie’s experiment with positioning digital art as a distinct category within its offerings. Nevertheless, the auction house has assured that it will continue to incorporate digital artworks alongside traditional contemporary pieces in its sales.
