Sotheby’s, the renowned auction house, has launched a secondary marketplace for NFTs, allowing artists to sell their digital works directly to collectors. This move is part of Sotheby’s Metaverse, a Web3-focused venture that has aggressively courted the NFT space since early 2021.
So far, Sotheby’s has generated over $100 million in NFT sales. It has hosted landmark NFT sales of solo artists, curated group shows, and flogged collections. The latest move is a play to compete with other secondary marketplaces and gain further Web3 credit with collectors and artists alike.
The fully on-chain sales system allows users to buy instantly in Ethereum or Polygon Matic with infrastructure powered by Mojito, a Web3 platform that Sotheby’s backed in 2021. The platform is artist-centric, with Sotheby’s rotating in a crop of artists every few months. Users will have access to the full portfolio of works made by an artist across other NFT marketplaces. It’s peer-to-peer, but with Sotheby’s setting the topics of conversation. The auction house will charge a 2.5 percent seller fee.
The Sotheby’s marketplace is also notable for its stance on royalties. Sotheby’s pledge to automatically pay artists according to their on-chain royalty rate will make it an attractive platform for artists. This is in contrast to other NFT marketplaces that have moved to royalty-optional models or removed them entirely.
Sotheby’s has launched its secondary marketplace with 13 of the highest-profile creators in the digital art space. This includes A.I. art stars Claire Silver, Sofia Crespo, and Refik Anadol, generative artists Tyler Hobbs and Pindar van Arman, and leading digital creators Hackatao, IX Shells, and XCOPY.
Michael Bouhanna, Sotheby’s Head of NFTs, said in a statement, “A fully on-chain peer-to-peer market is an important step forward in our evolution within the digital art and collectible space. To commemorate this event by opening our secondary market to a carefully selected group of artists, many of whom have been at the forefront of the movement and brought digital art to worldwide attention, further emphasizes Sotheby’s commitment to the NFT community.”
The next step for Sotheby’s Metaverse will come in June when it creates a digital gallery of works on the secondary market alongside digital art collector Cozomo De’ Medici. Sotheby’s Metaverse is positioning itself as the go-to place to sell and collect blue-chip digital work. With its secondary marketplace, it’s clear that it’s taking that position seriously. With its focus on artists, Sotheby’s is likely to continue to generate significant sales and gain further traction in the NFT space.
