Nearly 6,500 artists demanded in an open letter that fine art auction house Christie’s cancel its first show dedicated solely to works created with AI. Yet, the show, Augmented Intelligence, went on — and reportedly exceeded expectations.
According to Christie’s, the show brought in more than $700,000, with many lots reaching beyond their high estimates. The top sale was Refik Anadol’s “Machine Hallucinations — ISS Dreams — A,” a dynamic painting that algorithmically reimagines data from the International Space Station and satellites. It fetched $277,200.
Christie’s VP and director of digital art sales, Nicole Sales Giles, told Artnet that the show’s success “confirmed” that collectors recognize “creative voices pushing the boundaries of art.”
Many artists don’t feel that way.
In the aforementioned letter, the undersigned accused Christie’s of featuring artwork created using AI models “known to be trained on copyrighted work” without a license that “exploit” human artists — using their work without permission to build products that compete with them.