Christie’s inaugural Augmented Intelligence sale, its first auction dedicated entirely to artificial intelligence (AI)-generated art, exceeded expectations.
Marking a milestone for a major auction house, the sale attracted a diverse audience, with nearly half of the participants from the millennial and Gen-Z generations, according to a press release. The auction showcased works by prominent digital artists, including Refik Anadol, Charles Csuri, Harold Cohen, Pindar Van Arman, Alexander Reben, and Claire Silver.
Nicole Sales Giles, Vice President and Director of Digital Art Sales at Christie’s, emphasized the house’s commitment to contemporary artists.
“At Christie’s, we are dedicated to championing the artists of our time,” she said. “With this project, our goal was to spotlight the brilliant creative voices pushing the boundaries of technology and art.”
The highest-selling piece was Refik Anadol’s Machine Hallucinations – ISS Dreams – A, which fetched $277,200. This work was created using a dataset of over 1.2 million images from the International Space Station and satellites, reinterpreted through machine intelligence.
Another standout piece, Embedding Study 1 & 2 by Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst, sold for $94,500. This artwork was generated using a text-to-image model trained on altered images of Herndon.
Sales Giles noted that the auction aimed to highlight the influence and significance of digital artists in the contemporary art landscape. “The results of this sale confirmed that they did,” she said.
Closing on March 5, the sale attracted hundreds of bids and achieved a total of $728,784, surpassing initial estimates. Out of the 34 lots available, 28 found buyers, marking a successful debut for AI-driven art at Christie’s.
