Record-setting virtual art piece sells for $69 million
And it’s from an #SCartists
Everydays: The First 5,000 Days (2021) |
Beeple | Digital | 2021
Not familiar with the name Beeple? You need to be.
Mike Winkelmann is a Charleston artist most commonly referred to as @beeple, his nomme de net. According to a piece in India’s Economic Times, six months ago the 39-year-old had never sold a work. Today he became wealthy and world famous.
Ten days ago, Christie’s Auction House started the bidding for Everydays: The First 5,000 Days at the meager sum of $100 and did not even estimate a value. Recent fascination in the cryptocurrency market exploded into the crypto art market and drove the price to $4 million six days ago, $14.75 million just this morning (ed. note: not a typo), and in the final moments from $37.5 million to $50 million before the smoke cleared on an unheard of, staggering, mind-blowing, near-incomprehensible $69.3 million price.
We’re NOT linking to that.
From ARTnews:
At the end of February following Christie’s launch of the sale, another work by Beeple sold for $6.6 million through Nifty Gateway, an online cryptocurrency marketplace for digital art, at the time a price record for a Beeple piece and then the most expensive digital work ever auctioned.
Beeple has amassed a cult following in the crypto art market. In December, one of his digital works made $3.5 million in the artist’s second appearance on the market. Within the first few minutes of opening, the auction at Nifty Gateway broke records for digital art sales. Many of the works were resold at inflated values—some at more than 1,000 percent of their original purchase price.
Read more about this jaw-dropping breaking story from these sources:
You can also follow @beeple on Twitter. (NSFW language warning)