Christie’s AI Art Auction Hits US$728K, Sparks Debate Over Copyright and Creativity
Refik Anadol’s Machine Hallucinations – ISS Dreams – A (2021)
Image Source: Christie’s AI Art Auction
Christie’s recently wrapped up its first Augmented Intelligence sale, an online auction focused solely on artworks created with artificial intelligence. Held from February 20 to March 5, 2025, the sale totalled US$728,784, surpassing its pre-sale low estimate of US$600,000 (excluding fees). Out of 34 lots offered, 28 were sold, highlighting growing interest in AI-generated art while reigniting discussions about ethics and intellectual property in the field.
[Read More: Christie’s AI Art Auction Estimated to Fetch Up to $2.5 Million]
Results Highlight Key Works and Artists
The auction featured a range of pieces from the 1960s to today, blending early experiments with modern AI applications. Topping the list was Refik Anadol’s Machine Hallucinations – ISS Dreams – A (2021), a 16-minute video that uses AI to transform satellite imagery and 1.2 million International Space Station photos into a fluid “data painting”. The Turkish-American artist, known for immersive installations and his upcoming Dataland AI arts museum in Los Angeles, saw the work fetch US$277,200—above its US$150,000-$200,000 estimate. The sale reflects Anadol’s prominence in the AI art space and buyer interest in his approach.
Other notable sales included Embedding Study 1 & 2 (from the xhairymutantx series) by Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, created for the 2023 Whitney Biennial. This text-to-image AI work, depicting Herndon in a stylized spacesuit, sold for US$94,500 against a US$70,000-$90,000 estimate. From earlier eras, Charles Csuri’s Bspline Men (1966), an ink-on-paper piece by a generative art pioneer, brought in US$50,400, just under its US$55,000-$65,000 range, while Harold Cohen’s Untitled (i23-3758) (1987), produced with his custom AI program AARON, sold for US$11,340 within its US$10,000-$15,000 estimate.
Six lots, however, went unsold, including Pindar Van Arman’s Emerging Faces, which had the highest estimate at $180,000-$250,000, suggesting uneven demand across the category.
Ethical Concerns Stir Controversy
The auction faced significant pushback. An open letter, posted online on February 8 and signed by nearly 5,600 people, called for its cancellation, citing ethical issues with the AI models behind many works. “Many of the artworks you plan to auction were created using AI models that are known to be trained on copyrighted work without a license”, the letter stated, arguing that these technologies exploit human artists by using their creations without permission or payment to build competing commercial tools.
Christie’s pressed ahead despite the criticism. A February statement to The Art Newspaper from a spokesperson defended the sale: “The artists represented in this sale all have strong, existing multidisciplinary art practices, some recognised in leading museum collections. The works in this auction are using artificial intelligence to enhance their bodies of work”. After the sale, Nicole Sales Giles, a Christie’s digital art specialist, said the outcome validated their goal to highlight artists advancing technology and art, adding that it showed their relevance in the current artistic landscape.
The dispute, while polarizing, drew unusually wide attention to what might otherwise have been a routine online auction, likely boosting visibility.
[Read More: Will Christie's AI Art Auction Top US$1.32M A.I. God Record?]
New Buyers Signal Market Shifts
The sale’s bidder pool offered insights into its audience. Christie’s noted that 37% of registered bidders were new to the auction house, with 48% identified as Millennials or Gen Z. This echoes a late 2024 Hiscox report, researched by ArtTactic, which found newer collectors more open to AI art than seasoned ones. The report also separated AI art’s market from the NFT surge and crash of 2021-22, pointing out that AI and generative art auction sales peaked in 2023. It suggested NFT collectors are now seeking works with greater depth and intent—qualities AI art might increasingly provide.
[Read More: The First AI Artworks Sold at $432,500!]
Copyright Questions Loom Large
The Augmented Intelligence sale’s financial outcome points to a rising market for AI art, but it also amplifies a core conflict: the overlap of AI technology and copyright law. Critics contend that AI models, often trained on vast internet-sourced datasets including copyrighted material, blur lines of ownership and fair use. Christie’s and its supporters argue these works build on human creativity, with AI as a tool rather than a replacement.
As AI art gains traction, this tension will likely deepen. The sale’s results may encourage further exploration by artists and buyers, but the unresolved clash between traditional authorship and AI’s role ensures ongoing scrutiny of the genre’s place in the art world.
[Read More: U.S. Copyright Office Issues Guidance on AI-Generated Works]
Source: The Art Newspaper
