How relevant is the digital economy to performance in the global art market?
The 2025 UBS Art Basel Art Market Report is out—and for the second year running, global art sales are in decline. The industry’s North Star metric—total market sales—has dipped yet again, despite reaching record highs just two years ago. Why? The digital economy is exploding. Money, attention, and influence have moved online. But the art market, still tethered to legacy systems and outdated rituals, is lagging behind, especially at the top end of the art market.
Back in 2010, the social media boom was ignited with the launch of Instagram, which rapidly accelerated in 2012 when Facebook acquired the platform for $1B (April 9th, 2012). By 2013, a few forward-thinkers in the art world had begun to capitalise on its power and became early adopters of a social-media-first model. Where attention goes, money flows. That’s exactly what the founders of Avant Arte and a few other platforms understood[1]. They weren’t art insiders at the time—quite the contrary-–they were young entrepreneurs who saw a gap in the market and an opportunity to fill it using tech. First, they took the time to build a like-minded community, second they partnered with like-minded entrepreneurs in the industry to test ideas. Finally they filled that gap and offered blue-chip prints at accessible prices (matching community to opportunity). They used a “new at the time” technology platform for what it was meant to do: scale attention and convert it into value. Fast forward to 2025—they’ve reportedly earned $23 million last year during one of the worst market downturns in recent history.
Digital Technology is the Zeitgeist of our time. It’s top of mind for every leader and nation. In the art market, it’s changing how artists make work, how galleries communicate value, and how auction houses run leaner operations. It’s changing the financial landscape around art of how it is bought, sold, resold and tackling the markets biggest problems such as transparency and valuation[2]. Digital Technology is the engine that runs the modern economy—and any business that hasn’t embedded it deeply into its stack is now watching their market share dissolve, being captured by those who use it as leverage.
The truth is brutal: tech-forward players are having the best years of their lives. Everyone else is struggling to survive.
How a Monet Dealer Became a Blockchain Pioneer
Before founding Artory, Nanne Dekking was a veteran art dealer specialising in Monet, as well as holding executive positions with Sotheby’s and TEFAF. He knew the game very well, in a sense of the traditional art market. But he also saw the rot—lack of transparency, weak and fictitious provenance, fraud dressed up as scholarship. Like many great innovators, he wasn’t the most technical guy in the room. But he had vision and the right people around him. Decking came to understand how blockchain—a ledger system designed to validate transactions (or important data) without centralised trust—could bring a desperately needed layer of integrity to the art market.
He was instigated by one of his clients to go out and solve a huge problem using a new technology. He built a team, secured backing, and launched Artory. His early clients were anything but small players. We're talking Christie’s, Sotheby’s, high-end family offices and some of the biggest art collectors in the world. Their problem: they couldn’t afford loose ends or grey areas in their asset portfolios. They needed immutable data about their artworks—origin, ownership, condition—verifiable, validated and secured.
When speaking about whether or not his product will be important for the art market, Deckking puts it bluntly: “The art market will not be the enforcers of this technology. Enforcement will come from [more regulated] financial and insurance markets. They will impose it.”
Why? Because trust isn’t optional when real money is involved. When blockchain is used for its intended purpose, artwork records can be held securely in a “vault” and can be verified with key holders at any time. This helps solve issues of both fraud and security while minimising risk for buyers, sellers and businesses like auction houses and galleries who operate in the space.
The Technological Instigator: Hasso Plattner
If Dekking was the visionary who understood the market's biggest problems from his extensive knowledge and experience at the highest levels, Plattner was the “Big Techie” who was no stranger to sparking a tech revolution. Hasso Plattner, billionaire founder of SAP and one of Germany’s most powerful figures in both tech and art—and his inner circle of wealth advisors—challenged Dekking directly: “Why don’t you start a company using blockchain technology and see how we can incorporate that in the art market?”
Dekking, as a specialist in French Impressionist Art helped Plattner build a world class art collection over the years—especially rich in Monets—many of which are now on display at the Museum Barberini, which he founded in Potsdam, just outside Berlin. The two had a professional relationship in art but Hasso Plattner and his team knew what scalable technology could do to big problems when a company achieves product market fit. They both agreed that third-party validation by experts is one of the most important “information assets” that an artwork can have. What if they could build a tool that strengthened valuation (by having stronger provenance information) and kept immutable records of that information on the blockchain. When you’re talking about buying assets in the 7-figures, wouldn’t you want a little more than someone's word, especially when operating in an unregulated market?
This is what real innovation looks like. Plattner understood how legacy markets get disrupted in the 21st century—in the case of the art market it was not going to be by artists or curators (later proven by the NFT boom and bust), but by visionaries who know how to build and stack systems which solve real world problems.
He didn’t just instigate the development of the technology, he also became an angel investor through Hasso Plattner Capital and remains a critical advisor on building its infrastructure.
Did the NFT Boom Ruin Blockchain’s Reputation in the Art Market?
NFT’s as created by artists (even the likes of Paris Hilton) in 2021-2022 are perfect examples of what happens when technology is used for unintended purposes. A speculative boom and swift bust — and a quiet exit for most of its bandwagon adopters[4].
NFTs were a double-edged sword. On one hand, they did the heavy lifting of public education—almost everyone now knows what blockchain is. On the other hand, the boom-and-bust cycle of flipping JPEGs for speculative gains gave the technology a bad name to the wider public when the bubble burst - especially to non-tech savvy consumers.
“Blockchain is just a tool,” Dekking says. “It’s a tool in the right hands that can be crucial. But then you had all these companies creating tokens of artworks based on information the owners submitted themselves [lacking expert third party validation]. Who cares? It’s irrelevant.”
He’s right. Blockchain, in the wrong hands, is a chainsaw with no safety lock for the public. But in technical skilled hands, it creates efficiency and security that spreadsheets, PDFs and out-of-the-box online databases simply cannot match.
Last year, Christie’s database was hacked by Ransomhub who stole information from “at least 500,000 Christie’s customers from all over the world”, including full names, document numbers, nationalities and birth dates. These customers purchased billions of dollars in valuable assets. In the wrong hands, that of a violent criminal, this kind of information could put lives at risk – there is certainly a need for more secure digital solutions when it comes to sharing or transferring important data and other digital assets — this is just one intended use of blockchain.
Digital Technology Is the Zeitgeist of Our Time
Picasso (1881-1971) lived through many periods and his genius was capturing the cultural climate of his environment and manifesting that spirit through a unique visual language. His blue period paintings from 1901-1904 embody poverty and suffering. His 1937 Guernica reflects civil war and destruction. Picasso personified his era by understanding the world he lived in and deeply connecting to it. This is why his name will forever be remembered in history and he is still the highest selling artist today.
In the 1980s, Andy Warhol captured the Zeitgeist: celebrity, greed, American excess. As a leading artist of the Pop Movement in New York City, Warhol focused intently on what moved the needle in society. In his time it was the US political machine, Wall Street and Hollywood carving out culture. Today, the most celebrated people in the world are not making movies, nor are they in government, and fiat currency is losing value and trust.
It’s a technology that is driving society forward and the Sam Altman’s of the world are its stars. Wealth today is created through technological breakthroughs in scaling digital systems. Of the 5 richest people in the world today consisting of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison and Warren Buffet - four of them are self made billionaires all derived from the tech industry. The fifth richest, Warren Buffet and the oldest of the list, made his wealth from Finance. All of them are significantly wealthier than any monarch alive and all obtained wealth in their own lifetime, signaling that wealth creation has shifted away from finance and towards tech.
Digital technology is creating a new reality for every industry—and the art world is no exception. AI, IoT, and Blockchain are the tools of today. Robotics are soon to be commercialised which add another level of complexity but also productivity that will change the labour market forever. If you’re not thinking in code, APIs, automations, robots and tokens—you’re not active in the new economy.
How Blockchain, IoT and AI are coming into Product-Market Fit Today
Companies like Artory aren’t minting JPEGs. It’s solving real problems. “Every artwork is appraised at least once a year. If it becomes collateral, maybe twice.” With blockchain, Dekking says, “all the information is already living in the space where it’s collected, where it’s organised, and where it cannot be tampered with.” Immutable records. Smart efficiency. Tamper-proof provenance. That's the product-market fit and big collections like the Barney A. Ebsworth collection have already adopted it.
Kreation Technologies, a London based start-up has recently launched a digital infrastructure called the EMTN Network that addresses the issue of artist royalties through IoT devices, AI and blockchain solutions. ARR (Artist Resale Rights) pays out less than 1% of visual artists in the art industry and penalises galleries and dealers who are essential in building and investing in artists careers. ARR is also not enforceable in the US and China, where 76% of art market transactions occur. By comparison, artists in the music industry and their labels get paid at a 90% success rate (meaning 90% of artists and their labels get paid royalties). Authors and publishers have an even higher success rate with royalties than musicians. Open-source blockchain technologies and IoT devices are being used to fill the gap without the need of legislation in the US and China - they are building a community that pays artists when artists' work creates value. Their EMTN Network proves the technology stack available today can solve problems which were previously unimaginable (ie counting in-person-views of art objects the same way spotify counts song plays or youtube counts video plays).
AI is used in both companies' tech stack in various domains. Where data analysis and functional tasks are concerned, AI and customised AI agents are decimating the way the whole world operates. From online sales agents to researching large databases of auction results — AI can already do most large scale analytics tasks better than humans. When used effectively, AI frees up time for creative and relationship building tasks which are critical for art market transactions—these transactions still require a lot of expertise and trust as well as third party validation at the highest levels. AI can’t do everything for us yet, but Max Tegmark, a technologist from MIT tells us that soon, AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), will be a reality in the next 10-15 years. That means that AI will be smarter and more effective than humans at most tasks (it will be taking most peoples jobs as we know them today). For a deep dive in AI and the Art Market, read ART MARKET INNOVATORS: HOW TECHNOLOGY IS CREATING THE NEXT ERA OF COLLECTING AND COMMERCE.
Where These Technologies are Winning—Outside the Art World
The country of Georgia used to have a land registry full of corruption. After adopting blockchain, trust scores soared from 3% to 97%. In Estonia, the entire national health system (e-health) uses blockchain and IoT devices to track access to medical records, improving patient care and system efficiency.
Under its Smart Nation initiative, Singapore has integrated IoT across public transport, healthcare, and infrastructure. IoT devices monitor data and feed it back to companies and governments. The city-state employs a network of sensors, including 110,000 lampposts equipped with wireless sensors, to monitor and manage urban systems effectively. In America farmers are adopting IoT technologies for precision agriculture. Devices monitor soil moisture, crop health, and weather conditions, enabling data-driven decisions that increase yield and reduce resource usage.
China has become the largest market for IoT devices, with over 5 billion connected devices—globally there are 18 billion deceives currently active. Chinese factories employ IoT to automate processes and improve quality control. All of the information is being analysed and automated through AI networks where China and the US are in a race for AI market dominance. These are not crypto startups. These are governments.
So ask yourself: if a nation can use this technology stack to protect citizens’ property, health data, and agricultural infrastructure, why can’t the art market protect its customers from fraud and misinformation? What exactly is holding the art market back from being a safe, transparent market? Why can’t artists get paid when their work is used for commercial purposes by other businesses?
Because the art market is still stuck in legacy thinking. But that’s changing—fast.
The Global Wealth Game is Technology
The two biggest economies on the planet—the United States and China—are no longer just trading goods and services in the diplomatic manner of the past. They’re simultaneously locked in a high-stakes economic battle over tariffs and the race for technological supremacy. Sparked in part by Trump-era politics[5] and escalated by AI, chip manufacturing, and digital infrastructure battles, this isn’t just an economic war—it’s a war over the future operating system of the world. From the level of nations, all the way to each individual, success in 20 years from now is a function of how you react to AI today.
The top end of the art market has seen a major decline because investors are reallocating into the next big thing. They’re chasing exponential returns in tech, not linear ones in legacy markets. Investors who remember the growth of AMZN, MSFT, APPL and most recently NVDA are not going to let this period of wealth creation pass them by. The only way the art market will attract big capital is by adopting these technologies and using them with good intention that contribute to solving the market's biggest problems. Using tech for unintended purposes, like flipping JPGs, will not attract long term capital nor confidence.
The biggest threat to art market entrepreneurs (including artists) today is not competing against each other. Today, the biggest threat comes from tech savvy outsiders (think back to Avante Art or Hasso Platner) who see the big problems in the art market and know how to solve them using technology[6].
Digital Art and the Rise of New Cultural Institutions
Digital art as a medium is no longer fringe. Institutional validation has always played a critical role in shaping the trajectory of contemporary art. In the 1960s, it was the museums—MoMA, the Whitney, the Tate—that elevated Pop Art from commercial provocation to cultural landmark. Their endorsement transformed artists like Warhol, Haring and Lichtenstein from American cult figures into enduring icons of global 20th-century art history. Once institutions collected and exhibited their work, global audiences—and eventually the market—followed.
Today, we’re witnessing a similar inflection point with digital art. Leading institutions such as the Whitney Museum, MoMA, and the New Museum have begun acquiring digital works, incorporating them not as novelties, but as integral parts of their curatorial strategies. This signals more than acceptance; it signals permanence. Digital art is not being tolerated—it is being canonised.
Simultaneously, we are seeing the emergence of new institutions built entirely around digital media and immersive technology. teamLab’s large-scale museums in Tokyo and Abu Dhabi, Nxt Museum in Amsterdam, ARTECHOUSE across multiple U.S. cities, and the UBS Digital Art Museum set to open in Hamburg in 2026 are redefining what a museum experience looks like in the 21st century.
When both legacy institutions and newly minted cultural powerhouses converge on a medium, it’s not a fleeting trend. It’s a structural shift. And just as Warhol and Picasso captured the spirit of their time, digital technology is the essence of ours. For those still questioning the legitimacy or value of digital art, the museum sector has already rendered its verdict.
Conclusion
Everything was at one time a novel innovation—until it became the infrastructure of daily life. The airplane, the computer, the internet, even photography and fiat currency that we use daily on our mobile devices—none of these things were part of history for most of human existence. Nor were the ideas that underpin modern society: democracy, economics, medicine. They were all invented, tested, iterated, and—over time—adopted as norms.
Today, we are living through another inflection point. AI, blockchain, IoT, and decentralised systems are not just buzzwords; they are the foundations of a new era being built in real time. But innovation is rarely understood “in the moment.” It’s a lagging indicator—validated once it transforms how we live, think, and exchange value.
Technology itself isn’t what moves society forward, it’s simply a tool. What matters is how it’s used—and by whom. When deployed with clarity, good intention, and deep understanding, it solves problems. It builds trust. It expands access. It creates exponential leverage. When misused, it distorts value, amplifies noise, and burns out fast.
Digital technology is the greatest value creator of our time. It’s bleeding into every inch of the art market. Those who learn to wield it with purpose will shape the future. Those who treat it as spectacle will fade with the cycle.
The primary lesson of art history is simple but unforgiving: it doesn’t remember the speculators—it remembers the masters.
NOTES:
[1] I’ve watched Avante Art grow during this period as I responsible for the development of Avante Art’s first exhibition in London in 2017 with Unit London - it’s a pleasure working with them over the years and witnessing their success
[2] Artprice has released a new AI model (January 2025) and is generally a trusted tool to start valuing art.
[3] Real time Forbes list as on May 10th 2025
[4] As they say on Wall Street, if your taxi driver is talking about it, it’s time to exit
[5] I was personally for renegotiation of tariffs from a US perspective but the undiplomatic manner in which it has been handled wouldn’t have been my preferential strategy
[6] These are just two examples - there are many others
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Dekking, Nanne. Video Interview via Zoom, conducted by Christopher Shake, 2 May 2025.
“Don Tapscott's LEAP 2024 Keynote: Introducing The Web3 Era - BRI - March 7, 2024 - Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.” YouTube, uploaded by Blockchain Research Institute, 7 Mar. 2024,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7AnrW3hA4Y. Accessed 16 May 2025.
Geert-Jan Bruinsma. University of Twente Alumni, https://www.utwente.nl/en/alumni/inspiring-alumni/ut-canon/stories/geert-jan-bruinsma/. Accessed 16 May 2025.
Hoffman, Philip. “Reflections on the Current Art Market.” LinkedIn, 2024, https://www.linkedin.com/posts/philip-hoffman-8191a11a_reflections-on-the-current-art-market-april-activity-7314186385324728320-aj5C. Accessed 16 May 2025.
McAndrew, Clare. The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2025. UBS, Mar. 2025, https://www.ubs.com/global/en/media/display-page-ndp/en-20250313-art-market-report-2025.html. Accessed 16 May 2025.
“Mark Cuban Doesn’t Believe in Following Your Passions | Re:Thinking with Adam Grant.” YouTube, uploaded by TED Audio Collective, 4 May 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOYWKN9sxaI. Accessed 16 May 2025.
“Sotheby’s Institute: Top Five Trends in Contemporary Art Today.” Sotheby’s Institute of Art, https://www.sothebysinstitute.com/news-and-events/news/top-five-trends-in-contemporary-art-today. Accessed 16 May 2025.
Wu, Lingfei, et al. “Large Teams Develop and Small Teams Disrupt Science and Technology.” Nature, vol. 566, no. 7744, Feb. 2019, pp. 378–382. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-0941-9. Accessed 16 May 2025.
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About the author
Christopher Thomas Shake
Christopher Thomas Shake is an art market strategist with 17+ years of experience in art and finance; he help's the most creative people in the world turn their ideas into assets and sustainable businesses. His work focuses on business innovation, revenue scaling, and tech-driven systems for art market entrepreneurs who want to compete in the global art market—gallerists, curators, collectors, and art-tech founders who are building the future of the industry.