Editing Christie's (section)

==Blockchain Technology at Auctions==

In 2018, Christie's began offering "digital passports" stored on the [[blockchain]] to a select number of private collectors purchasing art. These "certificates of ownership" gave the buyer a clear and transparent [[provenance]] record of the piece of art they were purchasing, a record that could never be erased or manipulated, and accessible worldwide.<ref>[https://webflowinternal.artory.com/blog/artory-to-join-christies-panel-on-art-and-blockchain Artory to Join Christie’s Panel on Art and Blockchain] ''Artory''.</ref>

Six years later in October 2024, two Christie's auctions exhibited this block-chain technology in the most public events to date. In the first, on 2 October, Christie's New York showcased the work of [[Diane Arbus]] and [[Cindy Sherman]] in ''An Eye Towards the Real: Photographs from the Collection of Ambassador [[Trevor Traina]]'' - a former U.S. ambassador to Austria and founder of the [[web3]] wallet provider ''Kresus''. Eight days later, on 10 October, Christie's New York auctioned ''Ascend'', a digital work created by Ryan Koopmans and Alice Wexell, marking the first time a piece inscribed on [[Bitcoin protocol|Bitcoin's Ordinals protocol]] had been sold in a live auction at Christie’s. Christie's sees this "integration of physical and digital ownership" as the future of art auctioning, and the most efficient way for buyers to know they've purchased a work with as accurate and secure a provenance as possible.<ref>Dorian Batycka (11 October 2024), [https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2024/10/11/from-ordinals-to-ownership-christies-explores-new-frontiers-of-blockchain-based-provenance From ordinals to ownership: Christie's explores new frontiers of blockchain-based provenance] ''[[The Art Newspaper]].</ref>