Leading Auction House Christie's to Record Art Sales on a Blockchain

London-based Christie's, one of the oldest and most noted art auction houses in the world, is turning to blockchain tech to securely store sales and provenance data.

Thursday that it is collaborating with blockchain-powered digital art registry Artory to pilot the encrypted recording of auction transactions.

Artory's blockchain platform will store data from each sale, including the item's title, description, final price and date.

"Our pilot collaboration with Artory is a first among the major global auction houses, and reflects growing interest within our industry to explore the benefits of secure digital registry via blockchain technology."

Artory said in a blog post that its blockchain registry offers a "Secure digital record of transactions, with a goal of providing greater confidence in an artwork's ongoing provenance and greater efficiency in its eventual resale."

Christie's offers around 350 auctions annually and handled sales of $4 billion in the first half of 2018, according to the release.

Blockchain technology is gaining momentum across the art industry.

14 Small Electric Chairs painting, was tokenized and sold on a blockchain using an ethereum smart contract.

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