Christie’s Credits Tech Innovation for Performance Results

After more than 350 years in business, Christie’s is still finding ways to reach new customers, including growing its online-only sales, expanding its digital innovation and stepping into the non-fungible token (NFT) market, according to the company’s first-half performance release Tuesday (July 12).

“We have accelerated our technological innovations and diversified the range of services for our clients (live and digital auction, private sales, art financing) to allow them to take advantage of a growing demand for art and luxury,” said Christie’s CEO Guillaume Cerutti in the release.

Christie’s online-only sales were up 292% in the first six months of 2022 compared to pre-pandemic 2019, with an average lot value of $15,000 and 63% of all new buyers coming through online sales. The auction house sold 26% online in the first half of 2022 than it had in the previous year, with 68 online-only sales generating $149 million, the release stated.

The company also teamed with hologram builder Proto to allow potential bidders to take virtual 3D tours of art and objects around the world. That helped its social media presence in Asia grow 105% year over year to 480,000 total followers and its United States and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) social following jump 13.4% to 1.78 million, according to the release.

Almost three-quarters of all bids in Christie’s auctions are placed online, and the company is the first auction house to allow PayPal as a checkout option, the release stated.

Christie’s sold $4.75 million in NFT art in the first half of 2022, including the highest-earning NFT lot at auction, Refik Anadol’s Living Architecture: Casa Batlló, for $1.39 million, according to the release.

Overall, for the first half of 2022, Christie’s generated $4.1 billion in sales, up 18% over the same period in 2021, with auction sales of $3.5 billion for 22,085 lots, the release stated.

Christie’s had a charity sale last month highlighted by tokenized art called “Cartography of the Mind,” raising more than $1.6 million with none of its offerings going for more than $250,000.

Read more: NFTs Hold Value in Christie’s Auction

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