Sotheby’s, the British-American auction house, has announced that they would be entering the world of tokenized art by a creator known only as “Pak.”
Charles Stewart, the CEO of Sotheby’s, said:
“We’ve been following the NFT space for some time and we’re excited this morning to be announcing an upcoming sale next month with an artist who is known as Pak.”
It has been reported that Pak’s anonymity has led to some discourse over whether they are a single entity or a collective of multiple artists all operating under a single mononym.
A September 2020 article from The Control noted that Pak might even be an artificial intelligence program or bot.
According to Stewart, whatever the case, the artist is no stranger to the digital art space, boasting “decades” of experience.
Not to be outdone by Christie's, @Sothebys auctions are pursuing NFTs. Let’s get ready for art on the blockchain to go mainstream. https://t.co/K3NQQ7XpL2 — Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) March 17, 2021
The report said that though NFTs first appeared in 2017, they have gained significant traction in the cryptocurrency industry over the past year. These tokens are provably unique, and therefore capable of representing individual items of tangible value. If two assets share fungibility, individuals can swap one for another, with no loss of fidelity.
In contrast, a nonfungible saved piece of data is probably unique, and therefore rare. Nonfungible tokens provide each individual asset with a traceable provenance, which acts similar to an autograph or certificate of authenticity.
He said:
“It’s still very early, needless to say, with crypto art in general. This is new for all of us. But there’s a lot that’s really exciting and we think has staying power.”
Likewise, Stewart explained Sotheby’s decided to work with a well-known figure for its inaugural dive into the niche. This is what led them to Pak.
He added:
“We’re going to be selling both one of one works of art [and] also what are called open editions in the NFT world, where many people can buy tokens for the same work.”
Thus, he concluded:
“I do think this is the start of something that you’ll see more frequently. This really has the potential to bypass a lot of the traditional gatekeepers and vetting processes of the physical art world.”
Source: Cointelegraph | Image: Sotheby’s
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