On Thursday, a work of digital art shattered records at storied auction house Christie’s, selling for a historic $60.25 million ($69.3 million with buyer’s fees). It’s the highest price commanded by a JPEG file thus far—paid for, in true 2021 style, with the cryptocurrency ether.
The art was created a month ago by a graphic designer dubbed Beeple. Called Everydays—The First 5000 Days, the piece is a collage of every image Beeple has made, totaling one per day since 2007. In February, it was minted into a nonfungible token (NFT) using relatively nascent technology that certifies the authenticity and ownership of a “token” through a digital ledger of all its past transactions—in other words, a blockchain, which many now recognize for forming the backbone of cryptocurrency networks.
While $60 million seems steep for a work of digital art, which technically anybody could view or download themselves, NFT technology guarantees only one name will be inscribed in the ledger as the piece’s current owner, leaving an indelible signature in its virtual provenance—one that will theoretically be coded and recoded in perpetuity.
There is demonstrable optimism for the future of NFTs: Noah Davis, a Christie’s specialist who organized the sale, told Bloomberg, “It’s a huge shot in the arm for the business generally. . . . I think we will have really compelling and exciting NFT-based art opportunities at Christie’s in the near future.” Nevertheless, some are wary. Todd Levin, a New York art adviser who saw a Leonardo da Vinci painting sell for $450 million in 2017, told The New York Times, “On the one hand, it’s super exciting to witness a historical inflection point. On the other hand, the amount of money involved could skew and damage a nascent emerging market.”
Meanwhile, further ushering NFTs into the mainstream are Kings of Leon, a multiplatinum rock band that will release the first NFT-certified music album this week.
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