Music Grimes sold several pieces of digital art at auction, raising a whopping $ 6m – and their new “owners” are the owners of the work itself, which means it can still be seen and shared online.
Grimes is one of the few artists who uses NFT (non-fungible token technology) to sell art.
But the art in question does not have a physical presence the same way a painting or sculpture does.
Instead, the token represents ownership – but not the work itself.
The token is recorded in a digital ledger, and can be resold. Art work can go up or down in value, but token holder never owns a real digital file.
Authenticity
NFT is probably best described as a kind of digital certificate of authenticity, and for some it becomes a desirable component.
Last month NFT’s of 10-year-old meme of Nyan Cat sold for $ 580,000, while a video clip of basketball player Lebron Jones went for $ 100,000.
NFTs exist in the blockchain – the same technology that supports cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin – and that’s how transactions are logged.
Auctions
Last month the 254-year-old auction house Christie’s opened its first auction of purely digital work by the artist Mike Winkelmann – also known as Beeple.
It is a collection of digital art created every single day over a 13.5-year period and is offered as a single lot.
“Acquiring Beeple’s work is a unique opportunity to own an entry in the blockchain itself created by one of the world’s leading digital artists,” said Noah Davis, specialist in post-war and contemporary art.
Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said people wanting to invest in NFT art should consider whether there would be long-term benefits.
“If you want to buy an asset as an investment, ideally you should do it because you have done your homework and you believe that over the longer term that investment will rise,” she said.
“At the moment some people are buying these types of assets for short-term speculative gain, with the expectation that they will be able to ride the wave of higher prices.
“There may well be a frenzy, but then the craze is likely to move onto the next big thing and the asset could end up being worth nothing.”
