Christie’s first AI art auction sees plenty of misses

Bid master Andreas Rumbler looks for another bid during an impressionist and modern art auction at Christie's, Tuesday, May 6, 2014, in New York. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) (Julie Jacobson/The Associated Press)

Christie’s first auction of art made by artificial intelligence (AI) ended Wednesday with mixed results, providing scant clues as to the future of the new and controversial medium.

Fourteen of the 34 lots put on the block during the 14-day online auction either received no qualifying bids or were sold for less than the minimum Christie’s had estimated.

One did go for more than expected -- an animation by well-known digital artist Refik Anadol titled “Machine Hallucinations - ISS Dreams - A” which fetched the highest price at US$277,200.

But an “Emerging Faces” creation by American artist Pindar Van Arman, touted as another highlight of the auction, saw no qualifying bids.

A work by the late American artist Charles Csuri, considered a pioneer of “computer art,” went for $50,400, slightly below the bottom of a price range announced by the auction house.

Auction sales tallied $728,784 in total, according to Christie’s.

For Nicole Sales Giles, Christie’s director of digital art, the auction’s results confirm that collectors recognize the influence and importance of the artists whose creations were featured.

“There could have been a better selection of works that are more representative of new media and AI,” said Steven Sacks, founder of New York gallery bitforms, which has been exhibiting digital art since 2001.

“The bigger conversation is -- should they be at auction yet?”

Sacks felt more time was still needed to educate people about the medium and for artists to gain credibility and exposure.

A separate group of artists had launched a petition urging Christie’s to cancel the sale.

The 6,490 or so signatories argued that some pieces had been created with the help of AI models “known to have made unauthorized use of works protected by intellectual property law.”

For them, auctioning AI-created art lets money be made from “massive theft of works by human artists.”

In 2023, several artists sued generative AI start-ups, including popular platforms Midjourney and Stability AI, contending the software models were “trained” with human-made works to which they had no rights.

Christie’s and rival Sotheby’s have featured AI-created works at auctions in the past, but this was Christie’s first event devoted to works conceived with the new technology.

In 2018, an algorithm-generated painting by French collective Obvious fetched $432,500, including fees and commissions, stunning the art world.

And in 2022, an animated work by Refik Anadol was acquired, also at Christie’s, for $1.38 million.