Blockchain Technology Used to Record $318 Million Gotten From Christie’s Art Sale

Proponents of blockchain technology have been campaigning for the adoption of blockchain. With so many use cases across industries, significant milestones are always cause for jubilation. The most recent milestone in the industry was set after blockchain technology was used successfully during an art sale. On the 13th of November, Christie’s famous auction house hosted a sale for the Barney A. Ebsworth Collection that amounted to $317,801,250. This is the first time an art sale of such an amount will be recorded on the blockchain.

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The announcement was made during a press release. Christie’s noted that the auction was successfully completed with the help of Artory, who used blockchain technology to host the auction.

New Blockchain Milestone Crossed

On the same night that a new record was set for the blockchain, many other record breaking figures were reached. A total of thirteen auction records were set. Chop Suey by Edward Hopper fetched $91,875,000. This auction hosted art lovers from all over the globe who all placed bids on art pieces by Barney A Ebsworth, one of the most famous art curators in recent history. Art pieces from artists like Charles Demuth, Jackson Pollock, Georgia O’Keeffee, and William de Kooning were auctioned.

About 42 art pieces were auctioned during Ebsworth’s display done on Artory’s Ethereum blockchain. The private blockchain was used to keep record of the sale in details. Some of the information on the blockchain include details about the art pieces like life cycle, auction dates, final prices, item titles theft and restoration history. Only the identity of the owner wasn’t recorded on the blockchain for privacy and security purposes. This way, prospective buyers had access to an immutable and secure digital record of the artwork they had interest in. This prevents them from buying fake or stolen items.

Each time a piece was sold, the blockchain generated a digital certificate that allows Christie’s give out the original, requested art work and enhances the buyer assurance.

Last month, Christie’s made an announcement about entering into partnership with Artory to host auctions on its blockchain technology in a bid to increase transparency in the collectibles and artworks auction space. The information at the time was that the Barney A. Ebsworth collection was going to raise no less than $300 million and it would be the first auction to benefit from the partnership. Keep in mind that in the first quarter of the year 2018, the 252 year-old auction house raised $4.04 billion in art sales.

This week Thursday, about 49 new pieces from this collection, which has been referred to as the most valuable privately-held art collection of the 20th century, are going to be auctioned with this same blockchain technology by Artory.

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