Edgar Degas ballerina hologram’s worldwide tour

A hologram of Edgar Degas’s Petite danseuse de quatorze ans (1927), previously on view at Christie’s San Francisco and Hong Kong branches. Courtesy of Christie’s.

As part of the auction house’s preview of works in its upcoming May 12 New York sale of Anne Bass’s collection, Christie’s in collaboration with Los Angeles-based startup Proto displayed Edgar Degas bronze sculpture Petite danseuse de quatorze ans(est $20m-$30m)
in a three dimensional hologram in San Francisco and Hong Kong. As the artwork was shown to the public in an interactive viewing box for the first time at different locations in the world, the auction house definitely managed to rejuvenate its traditional fine art auction with a more futuristic technology.

The new technology, that also served for NFTs display, could potentially reduce the amount of polluting and environmental cost due to the shipping and transportation of artworks and especially sculptures featured in art fairs and auctions. In the future, this holographic technology could indeed be made less expensive and more accessible to the general population and push the boundaries of expected exhibition practices in the art market.