NFT works land at French auctions

"A priori, we would be the first in France but we did not do it to be the first."

Asked by Agence France-Presse, Régis Cappelaere remains cautious about the first of the sale of NFT organized this Sunday by his study Cappelaere & Prunaux, in Fains-Véel, near Bar-le-Duc. It is true that apart from specialized digital networks where auctions are legion, more and more actors in the art world are in turn considering plunging into the vast pool of works with non-fungible tokens (

, or NFT). After the two international heavyweights - Christie's and Sotheby's - then the entry into play of the galleries, the French auction rooms thus claim in turn a share ofa cake that last month represented a market of over $ 2 billion.

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"What is important is the fact that we can sell virtual works, this is the first time that we have done this, we have been working on it since August"

, continues Régis Cappelaere for AFP .

by the young collaborators of the auctioneer, this Sunday's sale - described on the Drouot site as the

presents around thirty works. Alongside the collages of Tyrannosaurs or a Goldorak which would doubtless not have stood out in the work of Beeple, which was sold for $ 69.3 million in March, there is a jumbled series of three

to Kasimir. Malevich, various more classic collages, or even

(sic).

One of them, an NFT and

of

, the first successful photograph taken in 1827 by Nicéphore Niépce is estimated at 300,000-400,000 euros.

Take advantage of global enthusiasm

Almost half of these NFTs offered for sale are signed by the New French Touch collective, which claims to be made up of

. A mixture of genres that might surprise for a more traditional collective of artists, but which in short corresponds quite well to the very diverse profile of the most committed actors of this new artistic movement which is still quite controversial. Founded on the principle of

(

), popularized by cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, an NFT work is distinguished from the rest of digital art by its token, which acts as a tamper-proof certificate of authenticity.

The NFT market, which has existed in relative discretion for a few years, has experienced extraordinary boom since the start of the year, illustrated by the historic sale of Beeple to Christie's, and is now generating some $ 10 million per day on average. .

We have seen the scores among the Anglo-Saxons, will France follow?

I do not know.

Régis Cappelaere.

Sums that Régis Cappelaere does not expect at all, for whom the Sunday sale must first and foremost allow him to probe the ground, and see if the buyers are there

, he wonders, while saying he is ready to

.

If, unlike the galleries, the sales rooms are not affected by the latest containment measures which are about to be lifted in the coming days, the auction will take place both face-to-face and online, on the site dedicated Drouot.

Read also: NFT works of art arrive in galleries

This dematerialization of sales has accelerated since the Covid-19 crisis, as Régis Cappelaere reminds us:

However, although the auctioneer also claims to see in the virtual side of this sale

, indeed physical objects will also be offered. While the majority of buyers will simply be entitled to a paper print of their digital art object, the acquisition of one of the NFTs - titled

- will reward its new owner with the spool of nickel wire depicted in the work. The trick of the operation? The actual reel, worth 1,700,000 euros, is worth at least five times the starting estimate of the NFT that represents it. A great way to confuse the value of the art object with its own subject.