American digital artist, Mike Winklemann, also known as Beeple, seals the deal by selling his unique NFT piece, ‘Everydays: The First 5000 Days’ fetching for over a record-breaking deal of $69.3million. The artwork took 14 years to come to its completion.
The artwork covers a range of themes from society’s obsession with technology, its fear, the desire for wealth and its enmity, alongwith the United States’ shaky political history. Christie announced it as a “watershed moment in the development of digital art.” Christie tweets on the historic sale being witnessed by 22 million people.
22 million people tuned in for the final moments of @Beeple's historic sale this morning, which totaled $69.3 million. Relive it from the artist's POV in this link! #beeple #digitalart #digitalartist #artist #art #thefirst5000days #nft https://t.co/XaREV5Fdvu — Christie's (@ChristiesInc) March 11, 2021
With ‘Everydays’ comprising of 5000 images, Beeple joins the list of Jeff Koons and David Hockney as the creator of expensive artwork pieces. Noah Davis, a contemporary artist at Christie’s added:
Acquiring Beeple’s work is a unique opportunity to own an entry in the blockchain itself created by one of the world’s leading digital artists. Source: cointelegraph
Surprisingly, Beeple’s art piece is the first to be featured on Christie’s. The piece, minted exclusively for the auction house on Feb. 16, was put for auction on Feb 25. The auction closed the deal on Thursday after the historic record-setting deal. According to Chritie’s press release, millennials and Generation X buyers made up the majority of the active bidders, of which 91 percent were new to Chritie’s.
Going by the recent scrutiny on NFT‘s energy-intensive trait, the climatic impact of digital art’s reliance on blockchain technology happens to be a concerning factor for many artists. On this note, Winklemann plans to buy carbon offset for all his NFTs to attain a net positive impact.
On NFT‘s recent booming sale, art business editor at Artnet news,Tim Schneider tells Al Jazeera:
NFTs are really an interesting phenomenon here in the art world because digital art has been something that the traditional art world has had a hard time selling, and frankly, has not had that much interest in selling traditionally Source: Aljazeera
Source: Cointelegraph | Image: esquire.com
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