LONDON (AP) \u2014 Christie\u2019s says it has auctioned off a digital collage by an artist named Beeple for nearly $70 million, in an unprecedented sale of a digital artwork that fetched more money than physical works by many better known artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The piece, titled \u201cEverydays: The First 5,000 Days,\u201d sold for $69.4 million in an online auction, \u201cpositioning him among the top three most valuable living artists,\u201d Christie\u2019s said via Twitter on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christie\u2019s said it also marks the first time a major auction house has offered a digital-only artwork with a non-fungible token as a guarantee of its authenticity, as well as the first time cryptocurrency has been used to pay for an artwork at auction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beeple, whose real name is Mike Winkelmann, responded to the sale result with an expletive on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cArtists have been using hardware and software to create artwork and distribute it on the internet for the last 20+ years but there was never a real way to truly own and collect it,\u201d Beeple said in a statement released by Christie\u2019s. \u201cWith NFT\u2019s that has now changed. I believe we are witnessing the beginning of the next chapter in art history, digital art.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christie\u2019s did not identify the buyer of the artwork, which consists of 5,000 individual digital pictures stitched together that Beeple created – one each day – since May 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Non-fungible tokens, known as NFTs, are electronic identifiers confirming a digital collectible is real by recording the details on a digital ledger known as a blockchain. The tokens have swept the online collecting world recently, an offshoot of the boom in cryptocurrencies. They\u2019re used to prove that an item is one of a kind and are aimed at solving a problem central to digital collectibles: how to claim ownership of something that can be easily and endlessly duplicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christie\u2019s said the artwork fetched the highest price in an online-only auction and the highest price for any winning bid placed online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some 22 million people tuned in on the Christie\u2019s website for the final moments of bidding, with bidders from 11 countries taking part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Others have also joined the craze for NFTs. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey put his\u00a0first ever tweet\u00a0– \u201cjust setting up my twttr\u201d – up for online auction as an NFT, with bids reaching as high as $2.5 million, and he promised to donate the proceeds to charity. Rock band Kings of Leon is offering a version of their latest album with the tokens that come with extras. A blockchain company bought a piece of work by British artist Banksy, burned it and then put a\u00a0digital version\u00a0on sale through a non-fungible token. The National Basketball Association is teaming up in a venture to sell virtual sports cards backed by the tokens. And the Associated Press is offering\u00a0NFT digital artwork\u00a0– a depiction of the U.S. presidential election\u2019s electoral college map as viewed from space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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