The Hammer Falls on the First Major Blockchain-Based Auction
Last week, Christie’s broke several World Auction Records during the Evening and Day Sales of the Ebsworth Collection. These records include the $91M sale of “Chop Suey” By Edward Hopper, and a total auction total of over $317M.
Artory recorded each item on the blockchain in a first for the industry. Now, each piece can be seen on the Artory Registry.
Following the sale, the National Law Review wrote a concise and important article on the issues still facing the art and auction industries, and how an independent registry like Artory, could begin to solve some of them.
When addressing the two largest issues facing the art market: (1) fraud and (2) properly recording sales and transfer of title, the National Law Review outlined Artory’s proposed solution:
Artory attempts to address some of these issues by offering a blockchain-based immutable registry of verified transactions. The Artory recordation process works as follows: (1) a major event in the lifecycle of a work occurs (e.g., creation or sale of the work; (2) a record-issuing party, like an auction house, gallery or insurance company, who was previously vetted and verified, provides Artory with a permanent record related to the applicable work; (3) Artory records the event to its registry; (4) Artory provides the record-issuing party with both the physical and digital certificates evidencing such record; and then (5) the record-issuing party provides the certificates to the owner of the work.
And on what a title registry means for art buyers:
“To have legal title and the right to “enjoy” the property, one must have the full and absolute legal and equitable ownership of the whole of the property without any encumbrances from any other person in the world. Clear title allows the holder to sell, pledge, donate, display or use the property without restriction.”
