Sotheby’s Digital Art Sales Soar to New Heights in 2023

Sotheby’s claims about $35 million in sales of digital art in a ground-breaking year, a monumental accomplishment in the NFT area.

The vice president of Sotheby’s emphasizes the first live digital art auction’s success and the record-breaking sale of “Ringers #879,” which point to a booming market for digital creation.

Almost $35 million in sales in the digital art space marks the successful end of 2023 for Sotheby’s, a well-known international art broker and auction company. As Head of Digital Art and Vice President of Sotheby’s, Michael Bouhanna calls 2023 “one of the most exciting years for digital art.”

The first live digital art auction by Sotheby’s, which drew 300 attendees and generated $12 million in sales, was the turning point. Notably, Dmitri Cherniak’s NFT, “Ringers #879,” sold for an astounding $6.2 million, setting a record for the highest price ever paid for digital art at the auction house.

Over the course of the year, Sotheby’s led more than twenty-five auctions that were solely focused on digital art or included it in modern art sales. In order to enable secondary trading of NFTs, the institution also made a digital leap by establishing Sotheby’s Metaverse, an on-chain marketplace.

Bouhanna revealed these astounding accomplishments and laid out the strategic plan for the future in a recent post on X, the former Twitter. In the upcoming year, Sotheby’s wants to refocus on “supporting creators and enhancing their primary market strategies.”

An established auction house, Sotheby’s was first active in the NFT market in April 2021 when it auctioned off a piece created by digital artist Pak, whose real name is not known. Ever since, the auction house has broken several records for sales of digital art, therefore establishing itself as a leader in the rapidly changing NFT market.