Christie’s auction house sold its first pure digital artwork for $ 69 million, making it the highest value paid for a non-fungible token (NFT).
The work, entitled ‘Everydays: The First 5000 Days’, was produced by Mike Winkelmann or better known as Beeple.
According to NBC News, the work is a collage that brings together 5,000 paintings uploaded daily over the past 13 years.
Among the paintings involved are Beeple's first baby, Hillary Clinton and popular cartoon characters.
The winner of the auction will own the work in the form of a code or NFT. The work does not have any physical form and will be sent directly to the buyer via a blockchain system.
NFT has gained popularity in recent months. Singer and visual artist, Grimes managed to sell his digital work for US $ 6 million last month while Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey auctioned off his first tweet in the form of NFT.
The auction by Dorsey has now reached US $ 2.5 million.
Noah Davis, a contemporary and post -war art expert for Christie’s, was the individual responsible for bringing Beeple’s work to the auction house after witnessing the Beeple’s surge in popularity.
“During the first 10 minutes of the sale, we had more than 100 bids. We opened bids from US $ 100 to over US $ 1 million.
"We have bidders from seven different countries," Davis told Yahoo Finance.
Beeple's digital work has attracted more than 1.8 million followers on Instagram and the man has successfully collaborated with Louis Vuitton, Katy Perry and Nike.
The auction is the first time Christie’s has accepted cryptocurrency as a form of payment. Payment in Ether must be made via Ether digital wallet transfer to Christie’s.
