American artist Mike Winkelmann, known under the pseudonym Beeple, entered the top three most sought-after and highest-paid artists in the world.
Auction house Christie sold his work “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” as a non-fungible token (NFT) for a record $69.3 million. This is a record price for NFT.
If you don’t know, a non-fungible token (NFT) is a new type of digital asset on the blockchain that guarantees the originality of an item and the ownership of its owner. Like other tokens, each NFT is unique and cannot be reproduced. NFT technology is booming right now. In mid-February, CoinDesk estimated the total value of all artworks sold as NFTs at over $100 million.
The work “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” JPEG file measuring 21,069 x 21,069 pixels is a collage of all the images that the artist — Beeple aka Mike Winkelmann — has published on the internet every day for five thousand days since 2007 — which can be viewed free of charge on the Tumblr online platform.
According to The New York Times, the auction took place over two weeks, with a starting price of $100. In the last few seconds of the auction, a lot of bids were received, which is why the auction was extended by two minutes.
Beeple’s work value was the third-highest auction price for a work by a living artist, behind Jeff Koons ($91.1 million) and David Hockney ($90.3 million).
