UK giant Auction Christie’s reportedly closing its department handling non -sales token, putting it under a broader department amid a global collapse in the art market.
The “Strategic Decision” will see the 258 -year -old British Auction House continuing to sell digital art such as unimaginable tokens (NFTS), but now within the larger 20th and 21st century category of art, According to In a report on Monday from now media mentioned a statement from a Christie speaker.
At the same time, the media now reports that the giant auction has laid out two employees, including the Vice President of Digital Art, but at least one digital art specialist will keep the staff.
Christie had a huge presence in the NFT space, Selling a lot of artwork.
The Auction House also became supporters of the Web3 space, launching an NFT auction platform in September 2022 and A Crypto-only real estate team in July.
Market conditions may have spurred shift
Fanny Lakook, a digital art adviser, curator and collector, Says In an X post on Monday that he suspects Christie’s move may be tied to the “current backing of the art market.”
The broader art market decreases, with a global sale of 12% from 2024 to $ 57 billion, with a combined public and private sales of auction houses dropping 20% to $ 23 billion, According to In the Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report 2025 released in April.
“Auction houses cannot justify an entire department when it brings less income than the other, even in some recently -successful sales,” Lakoouw said.
“It’s definitely not a good public signal, but we should also remember: home auctions are only focused on the second sales of well -known artists and brands. It’s too early for that model to actually work/scale digital art,” he added.
Lakiouw said it could be a good time to focus on the basic development of the market and introduce traditional collectors to new digital artists.
Christie can have a “Kodak Moment”
Meanwhile, an NFT collector and a member of the dedicated decentralized autonomous organizationPosting under the handle benji, Argued Christie’s step to close the digital art department does not reflect a weakness in demand for digital art, or that “institutions will no longer come for our JPEGs.”
She thought the business model was likely to be blamed for deciding because it was “flawed and uncertain,” and this new direction could be “Christie’s” Kodak moment.
“How do you charge a 25-30% commission on something that doesn’t have to be proven / stored / insured / sent, when your online competitors like the Gondi Charge Zero Commission for exactly the same sale?” Benji said.
“I hate to see good people who have lost their jobs, but Christie’s release into the space is a net positive – a less amount of extractor means more value for collectors and artists.”
Christie did not respond immediately to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.
Nft market records mixed result
The NFT market has had a chaotic several years. Last year was That -flag as the worst year of the market For trading and sales volume since 2020, partly due to volatility and increase in token prices.
Related: The NFT Market Cap dropped by $ 1.2B while the Ether Rally lost steam
It is Displays life signs in 2025. In August, The sector has moved forward with a market capitalization of more than $ 9.3 billion, a 40% uprising from July, as collections based on Ethereum and Ether (Eth) increased in price.
The market is shown Signs of cooling in recent weeksBut the current capitalization of the market is Up 2% in the last 24 hours and sit at $ 5.97 billion.
Some of the largest NFT collections through market capitalization have also experienced acquisitions. Cryptopunks have reached 1.9% in the last 24 hours, and has a trading volume of $ 208,319 with three sales.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club of the Yuga Labs reached 3.7% and has clocked a trading volume of over $ 1.2 million and 30 sales, while Pudgy Penguins reached 2%, with $ 905,526 in trade volume and 20 sales.
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