When the digital artwork Everydays: The First 5000 Days sold for a multi-million dollar sum, the buyer purchased not the art but a digital token called an NFT. The artist, Beeple, was paid in the crypto currency Ether and the art market suddenly seemed on the cusp of a revolution.

In this final episode, art historian James Fox asks how technology is transforming the art market, through online art fairs, virtual reality exhibitions, blockchain verification and the sale of new kinds of art.

The performance artist Marina Abramovic has long believed that the future of art is an ‘art without objects’. As the digital revolution gathers pace, Abramovic is one artist turning to new technologies to realise her vision.

In conversation with contributors from Christie’s, Hiscox and Hauser and Wirth, James asks whether there is a market for these new kinds of artwork.

Katharine Arnold describes Abramovic’s mixed-reality work The Life, which sees the artist materialise as a hologram, and James hears the inside story of the estimate-smashing sale of AI-generated artwork the Portrait of Edmond Belamy, an 18th century aristocrat who never existed.

And, beyond the online auction rooms, James asks how tech companies are taking on the role of patrons, as the boundaries between art and commerce blur.

Producer : Julia Johnson
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4

Image: The Life – Mixed Reality installation with artist's box, by Marina Abramović © Christie’s Images Ltd 2021

The Louise Bourgeois audio is courtesy of The Easton Foundation. Show less