A piece of virtual art entitled “Every day: the first 5,000 days”. Created by digital artist Beeple, it is the first NFT-based work of art to be auctioned at Christie’s.
Christie’s
A non-fungible token from the Beeple artist sold at Christie’s for over $ 60 million, making it the most expensive NFT ever sold at auction.
The final sale price may change higher as final bids are processed and auction fees are added, which could lead to a total of over $ 69 million. But sales have capped a two-week frantic online auction and ushered a new era in collecting, where prices for blockchain-based digital imagery now compete with prices paid for Picassos and Monets. While the future of NFT prices and their long-term role in the art world remains an open question and many see it as a speculative fad, the eight-figure price for Beeple has made the art world suddenly realize.
“As soon as I saw it, I saw it as this massive potential for it as a platform for digital ownership of a bunch of different things, not just art,” Mike Winkelmann, better known, told CNBC. under the name Beeple. “Before, I think it would be considered an alternative form of asset class.”
The record work, called “The First 5,000 Days,” was the first ever to be sold at a major auction house.
In 2007, Winkelmann set out to post a new work of digital art every day for the rest of his life and never missed a day. The first 5,000 of those works, which he calls “Every Day,” were compiled to form “The First 5,000 Days.”
NFTs, which are any digital assets with ownership registered on a blockchain, have become a $ 400 million market – much of it in the last month. Jack Dorsey turned the first tweet of 2006 into an NFT that currently has a top bid of $ 2.5 million. NBA Top Shots, which are NFTs of NBA videos, have exploded in popularity, with sales exceeding $ 200 million and a LeBron James video selling for $ 208,000. Grimes, the musician and artist, has sold over $ 6 million in videos and music.
Until Christie’s sale, the most expensive NFT ever sold was a Beeple work that was overturned by its owner for $ 6.6 million.
It is unclear whether the big art auction houses will follow. Sotheby’s said it has not made any announcements about future NFT sales, and Phillips said it has “no NFT news to distribute” at this time.