Christie’s digital art auction raises more than $50k for UNHCR

Christie’s hosted a charity auction with proceeds going to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The auction featured 11 pieces of digital art sold in the form of NFTs.

The “Bridging Worlds: Digital Art Beyond Borders” charity auction ran from Oct. 23 and closed on Oct. 30, 2024. According to the final bidding prices listed on Christie’s site, the auction accumulated a total of $51,387 from digital art sales.

The auction was curated by Micol Ap, and featured 11 digital artworks donated by a number of digital artists including Erick Calderon also known as Snowfro, IX Shells, Mario Klingemann, and Niceaunties among others.

“The sale aims to explore the transformative power of digital art in connecting worlds, transcending borders, and fostering a sense of unity across diverse artistic practices,” Christie’s on its X post.

For the charity auction, Christie’s partnered with the Switzerland for UNHCR innovation unit, the UN Refugee Agency’s national partner for Switzerland. Switzerland for UNHCR also made a post supporting the auction, urging users to bid on their favorite digital art pieces.

The digital piece that received the highest bidding price was called “Niceburg” by Singaporean artist Niceaunties. Niceburg features a video made of AI art showcasing a group of grannies living in the frozen landscape of an arctic tundra, known as Niceburg.

The video is narrated by a female voice with subtitles at the bottom, accompanied by visuals of the ice melting and the grannies spending time with fluffy stuffed animals that come to life. Niceburg was sold for 4.5 ETH or equal to $11.908.

Another notable piece is IX Shells’ digital moving art called “Rompeolas — Resurgiendo a través de la Resistencia” which translates to Sea Wall — Resurgence Through Resistance. The visual shows an array of orange and white dots moving together to form a 3D wave structure that surges through a black background.

IX Shells is a digital artist known for works that explore themes of identity, nature, and the intersection of the digital and physical worlds. Her piece was sold for 3 ETH or equal to $7,850.

The digital art piece featured in Christie’s promotional video is “Crush” by Andreas Gysin. Gysin’s artwork shows overlapping coding with different font colors over a black background all moving in sync with each other. Each letter is composed of a group of other keyboard letters and symbols. The piece was sold for 0.25 ETH or equal to $654.

The auction also features non-moving digital art, such as Vinnie Hager’s “Handle With Care” and “APT 47B” by Iskra Velitchkova.