Record at Christie’s: crypto art work sold for over 60 million
The auction at Christie’s closed a short while ago with the work “Everydays: the first 5000 days” by digital artist Beeple, born Mike Winkelmann.
This is a groundbreaking event because the work, which sold for $69,346,200 million, is the first purely digital artwork (NFT) ever offered by Christie’s.
Created over the course of 5,000 days, beginning on May 1, 2007, Beeple put together a collage of the works he made every single day for over 13 and a half years.Now those individual pieces have been brought together in “Everydays: the first 5000 days” , a unique work in the history of digital art.
So far, Beeple’s works have sold exclusively in markets supported by Blockchain technology at record numbers. In December 2020, for example, Beeple’s 20-piece work “The Complete MF Collection” made $3.5 million in a single weekend.
Christie’s is the first major auction house to auction a purely digital work with an NFT (non-fungible token) and to accept cryptocurrency, in this case Etherum, in addition to standard forms of payment for the single lot.
“Christie’s has never offered a work of new media art of this scale or importance,” , says Noah Davis, post-war and contemporary art specialist at Christie’s in New York. “The acquisition of Beeple’s work is a unique opportunity to support blockchain art created by one of the world’s leading digital artists.”
But what are NFTs?
NFTs are digital assets protected by a certification of authenticity and ownership via a token embedded within the blockchain mechanism.
A digital work is an NFT because, thanks to the blockchain, it is digitally signed by the artist who created it, which guarantees its traceability and origin.
There is no doubt that Blockchain technology is revolutionizing the art market, opening it up to new perspectives increasingly recognized by artists, collectors and institutions.
Innovative platforms using blockchain technology to support the authenticity of artworks include Art Rights, the first management and certification platform for artworks.
What about you, are you ready to enter the digital art market?
Photo Credits: Christie’s
