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FAD Magazine covers contemporary art – News, Exhibitions and Interviews reported on from London

Beeple’s First 5000 Days, sold for $69,346,250 to Metakovan, founder of Metapurse.

 Metakovan, the pseudonymous founder and financer of Metapurse, the largest NFT (unique digital assets) fund in the world, successfully bid and acquired EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS, for $69,346,250 (~38474.82 ETH). This breaks the record for the most expensive NFT ever sold. Metakovan acquired the artwork during a single lot auction hosted by the 255-year-old auction house Christie’s, which opened for bidding on February 25th and concluded on March 11th at 10 am EST.

Beeple (b. 1981), EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS 21,069 x 21,069 pixels (319,168,313 bytes) Minted on 16 February 2021. This work is unique.
Beeple (b. 1981), EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS 21,069 x 21,069 pixels (319,168,313 bytes)
Minted on 16 February 2021. This work is unique.

The final auction price of $69+ million USD was not the only record broken in relation to the sale. The artwork was minted exclusively for Christie’s, making Christie’s the first major auction house to offer a purely digital work with a unique NFT and to accept cryptocurrency, in this case, Ethereum (Ether). Around 22 million viewers tuned in to Christies.com for the final moments of bidding.

 “We are pleased to have brought together two distinct collecting communities – the traditional and the digital – at exactly the right moment for digital artists, for blockchain technology, and for cryptocurrency. The possibilities for what comes next in this field are inspiring and we look forward to  more collaborative innovations in the near future.”

Guillaume Cerutti, CEO of Christie’s

The artwork depicts a digital collage of 5,000 unique artworks created by digital artist Mike Winkelman, now famously known as Beeple, showcasing the cumulation of his work creating and posting an artwork every day consecutively for over 13-and-a-half years.

“When you think of high-valued NFTs, this one is going to be pretty hard to beat. And here’s why – it represents 13 years of everyday work. Techniques are replicable and skill is surpassable, but the only thing you can’t hack digitally is time. This is the crown jewel, the most valuable piece of art for this generation. It is worth $1 billion.”

Metakovan

This piece now ranks third amongst the most valuable artworks ever sold by a living artist, after works by Jeff Koons and David Hockney.

A renowned auction house, a contemporary artist; a wholly digital masterpiece that lives on a shared financial platform on the internet, acquired by a person of colour. This certainly is history. We also hope it is the future.

Twobadour, Steward of Metapurse, said that this event marks a shift in how the world perceives wealth, accomplishment, and high art.

About Metapurse:

  • Metapurse is an NFT production studio and the largest NFT fund in the world, financed by Metakovan and operated jointly with Twobadour.
  • The Metapurse contains some of the most iconic NFTs in existence, including Beeple Everydays: The 2020 Collection, Urbit Galaxy, F1 DeltaTime III, First Supper, and virtual estates in Cryptovoxels and Decentraland.
  • Notably, they have also purchased the complete set of the 20 first-edition Beeple Everydays: The 2020 Collection in yet another previously record-breaking auction on Nifty Gateway in December 2020.
  • The portfolio not only aims to collect meaningful stories but also catalyze financial and cultural inclusion.
  • With a track record of launching culturally-significant NFT projects like B.20, the Metapurse studio brings NFT experiments to life, from brainstorming brand identity to formulating token economics.
  • More info can be found by visiting their website metapurse.fund, their blog The Metapurser

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