In 2023, Sotheby’s marked a significant success in the field of digital art, achieving sales of nearly $35 million. This information was shared by the vice president and head of the relevant department, Michael Buchanan.

He noted that the past year was very important and exciting for the development of digital art. A particularly significant event was the setting of a new price record in this area: the NFT artwork Ringers #879 (The Goose) by artist Dmitry Chernyak was sold for $6.2 million.

Interestingly, in August 2021, this digital work was purchased by the cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC). However, after its bankruptcy in 2022, Sotheby’s auctioned off the NFT collection that belonged to 3AC.

In addition, Buchanan highlighted several other significant achievements of Sotheby’s this year:

• Launch of a secondary online marketplace for NFTs with royalty payments to authors.
• Conducting the first live auction for $12 million, which gathered more than 300 participants.
• Organizing more than 25 auctions dedicated to digital art.
• Launching a successful NFT collection "Themes and Variations" by 99-year-old artist Vera Molnar and Martin Grasser.

It is also worth noting that in February, Sotheby’s put up for sale the manuscript of the famous novel "Avalanche" by Neal Stephenson, in which, presumably, the term "metaverse" was used for the first time. In July, Sotheby’s held auctions of works by generative artists as part of the Gen Art Program, using blockchain technology.