Auction house Eesti Kunsti Oksjonid (EKO) said its technical team was working to resolve technical issues before the auction resumes at 6 p.m. Friday, picking up where it left off the day before.

"According to livestream support provider Zone, the issue may have been caused by a cyberattack," EKO said in a press release Thursday night.

The disruption occurred after the first work, Jüri Arrak's 1985 graphic work "Tiiger," sold for €23,500, up from a starting price of €1,600. Organizers had anticipated strong demand and worked with their technical partner to prepare for it.

Initial assessments, however, indicated the failure was not caused by excessive traffic.

"It's important to us that every bidder has an equal opportunity to participate, so we're postponing the auction until Friday," auctioneer Reigo Kuivjõgi said, apologizing to those who had been watching online and hoped to bid.

Server provider: No signs of cyberattack

Zone.eu marketing chief Triin Lükk later told ERR that Zone had not said a cyberattack was or might have been to blame for the disruption.

She explained that the company provides server services to EKO but does not develop or maintain the auction application itself.

"Based on the information available to us, we have found no signs of malicious activity within the scope of our server service," Lükk said. "Thus, we have no grounds for linking the disruption to a cyberattack."

The cause of the glitch is still being investigated, she noted, adding that Zone's server services are operating as intended.

"We can rule out a cyberattack based on what we've seen," Lükk said. "We've found no signs of one."

The EKL is holding a special fundraiser auction in Tallinn from October 8–10, with proceeds from the sale of 162 works going toward recouping nearly €700,000 the artists' union lost to fraud this spring.

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