Metakovan drops the mask.
Behind this enigmatic pseudonym was therefore the Indian millionaire Vignesh Sundaresan.
The purchaser of the digital artwork that sold last week for $ 69.3 million (58.2 million euros), a Singapore-based tech entrepreneur, stepped out of the shadows on Thursday, in a post. blog.
He said he acquired
Everydays: the First 5,000 Days
to
"show Indians and people of color that they can also be patrons
.
"
The collage of 5,000 digital images signed by American artist Beeple - Mike Winkelmann's real name - was sold on March 11 in a 100% digital auction at Christie's.
Only the amount of the acquisition and the buyer's pseudonym - Metakovan - were known at the time.
A specialist in blockchains (the
"blockchain"
), Vignesh Sundaresan knows the world and the environment of cryptocurrencies very intimately, since it is there that he made his fortune.
The young entrepreneur attributed his social rise, from a simple engineering student to becoming a serial millionaire, to his discovery of cryptocurrencies in 2013.
To read also: "NFT": The new global fever of digital collectables
Digital art revolution
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.
It is, moreover, 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 (for
"Non Fungible Tokens"
, or
"non-fungible tokens"
), which is based on the so-called
"blockchain" technology
, also used by cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
The authenticity and traceability of virtual objects such as
Everydays
are deemed to be inviolable.
“When it comes to high-value NFTs, this one is going to be very hard to beat,”
said Metakovan, quoted in Christie's press release after he won
Everydays.
It is
the jewel in the crown, the most precious work of this generation ”.
