Beeple’s $69.3 Million Sale Sets a Record Within The Digital Art Realm
Digital artist Beeple (aka Mike Winkelmann) has sold his artwork “Everydays — The First 5000 Days”—a collage of the images that he posted daily since 2007—for a record setting $69.3 million. That’s a record (by far) for digital art and is the third highest auction price for a living artist in any medium. Following the sale of Chris Torres’s “Nyan Cat” work for $590,000 just a few weeks ago, it’s part of what the New York Times is calling “NFT [non-fungible tokens] Mania”. The sale is especially phenomenal considering bidding started at $100 and was under $30 million just seconds before the auction was to end and extended by two minutes with heavy bidding. The artwork is the first NFT to be sold by Christie’s, and was “minted” just last month. The phenomenon drives plenty of conversation on issues surrounding ownership, the environment (as this model consumes a lot of energy) and conflicting arguments for and against. Collector Sylvain Levy says, “Art is no longer about a relationship with an object. It’s about making money. I feel bad for art.” But the appeal of blockchain for artists cannot be denied. Read more at the New York Times.
Image courtesy of Beeple + Christie’s
Via nytimes.com link opens in a new window
