(ANSA) - NEW YORK, MARCH 11 - A digital work of crypto artva for the first time at auction at Christie's and the hammer of the hammer stops at over 60 million dollars, an unprecedented figure that makes its author the third artist most valued living in the world after Jeff Koons and David Hockney.
The still-anonymous buyer then ended up paying $ 69.3 million including auction fees for "The Last 5000Days", a monumental JPG file by Beeple, (real name MikeWinkelmann), a 39-year-old Wisconsin illustrator who built millions for himself. followers on social networks thanks to commercial projects for pop stars like Justin Bieber and brands like LouisVuitton and Nike.
The work in question is entirely digital: a collage of 5,000 images created and posted from 2007 to 2021 that incorporates surreal scenes and drawings by politicians like Donald Trump and Mao TseTung alongside cartoon characters from Mickey Mouse to Pokemon.
The sale marks the height of the growing frenzy for Nonfungible Tokens (NFTs), a form of sublockchain registered digital work with a token that verifies the rightful owner and authenticity of the creation.
For Christie's it was the first auction of a work without a physical component and the first time in 255 years of history that bets were accepted in the crypto currency Ethereum.
Offered on February 25th with a starting price of just one hundred dollars, "TheLast 5000 Days" has seen prices soar thanks to about thirty fierce collectors who in the last half hour have made the offers soar from 15 million dollars to over 60 million final.
All expectations of the eve, therefore, have also been beaten the record so far for a work by Beeple: 6.6 million dollars paid last week for a 10second video.
Beeple's work focuses on society's fears and obsessions in the face of technology.
The artist is one of the initiators of the "everyday" movement of 3D graphics: since 2007 part of his work consists in creating an image posted online every day without missing a single appointment.
(HANDLE).