Indian millionaire Vignesh Sundaresan has been revealed to be Metakovan, the mysterious purchaser of a digital artwork that sold last week for $ 69.3 million (58.2 million euros), in order to show that "the people of color can also be patrons ”.
Last week, auction house Christie's announced the sale of the work of art, "Everydays: the First 5,000 Days", a collage of 5,000 digital images, signed by the American artist Beeple, whose real name is Mike Winkelmann, to a collector under the pseudonym of Metakovan.
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In a blog post on Thursday, Singapore-based Indian tech entrepreneur Vignesh Sundaresan, aka Metakovan, revealed that he acquired the artwork to "show Indians and people of color that they can be patrons too" .
He attributed his social rise from a simple engineering student to becoming a serial millionaire to his discovery of cryptocurrencies in 2013.
The effect of a bomb
The proceeds of the sale hit the art market like a bomb, where digital art was still just a niche six months ago.
British painter David Hockney and American visual artist Jeff Koons are the only artists in the history of art to have sold works at a higher price during their lifetime.
This is the first purely digital work of art ever sold by a major auction house.
The initial bet was $ 100 but the price eventually skyrocketed.
The work was designed from “NFT” - (non-fungible tokens), or non-fungible tokens, using so-called “blockchain” technology, also used by cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
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The authenticity and the traceability of virtual objects such as "Everydays" are considered inviolable.
"When it comes to high value NFT, this one is going to be very hard to beat," said Metakovan, quoted in Christie's statement after he won "Everydays", "the jewel in the crown. , the most precious work of this generation ”.