Are NFTs the new masters? How auction houses are chasing crypto millions

Little could James Christie have known some 240 years ago, as he sold masterpieces by Rembrandt and Rubens to Catherine the Great, that his auction house would one day offer virtual apes to a crypto company for over $1 million.

Nor would Sotheby’s founder Samuel Baker, auctioning hundreds of rare books for about $1,000 in 1744, have envisioned selling a copy of the original source code for the web, as a non-fungible token (NFT), for north of $5 million.

Times change.

“Everybody wants to sell an NFT,” said Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s global head of science and popular culture. “My inbox is just absolutely clogged.”