This article examines the symbolic, financial, and visual qualities of spectacular, multi-site, online art auctions staged by Sotheby’s and Christie’s during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is argued that these events adopted visual techniques drawn from television gameshows and popular cinema culture to create a distinctive screen-based reality for the transaction of art assets. Much of the rhetoric employed by the auction houses to publicise online auctions suggested a utopian conception of technology capable of encouraging artistic innovation and broadening access to art markets. In contrast to the idea that these online formats constitute democratic change in the artworld, this article argues that the control of new technological infrastructures represents an extension of institutional power and maintains the socio-cultural elitism of urban centres in which physical art auctions at the top end of the market have traditionally been conducted.

本文探讨了苏富比和佳士得在 COVID-19 大流行期间举办的壮观的多地点在线艺术品拍卖的象征、财务和视觉品质。有人认为，这些活动采用了从电视游戏节目和流行电影文化中汲取的视觉技术，为艺术资产的交易创造了独特的基于屏幕的现实。拍卖行在宣传在线拍卖时所使用的大部分言辞都暗示了一种能够鼓励艺术创新和扩大艺术市场准入的乌托邦技术构想。与这些在线形式构成艺术世界民主变革的观点相反，