From the news desk of cartoonist Joe Chiappetta, 9/9/2025
Costie's Auction House, established in London, 1766, announced this week that, regrettably, and with a heavy heart, it has decided to disband its controversial Digital Art Auction Department. In an official statement, Costie's cited the "rising cost of electricity as well as an increase in NFT rug-pull, cash-grab schemes" as reasons for winding down the division.
The company's long-time CEO, Lord Crusticuffs, who only last week was educated by teenage interns on the huge value and use-case for rare digital art, has promised to have his AI assistant keep a closer eye on this sector of the "art" market. The CEO also assured the press that the actual art market is, in fact, not in a 12% sales decline--as erroneously reported by previous sources. Rather the art market is only expanding too rapidly to quantify, and AI will confirm this once it has been properly programed to do so.
The two unfortunate Costie's employees discharged from the internationally renowned auction house were given complimentary premium land in the metaverse as severance for their brief service to the now defunct division. Gratefully, both former employees have job interviews scheduled later this month with the government's Department of Homeland NFTs. Apparently, the pay and benefits are much better there.
