Non-fungible tokens are revolutionising the art world –and art theft

Artists have been dismayed to find their work ending up in the control' of others

When the virtual auction bell rang at Christie's on Thursday, Mike Winkelmann, a digital artist better known as Beeple, made history: he had sold a non-fungible token" representing his piece Everydays: The First 5,000 Days, for $69.4m.

But while the new cryptocurrency craze may have brought the high-end art market into the 21st century, it's also modernising another aspect of the industry: art thieves.