Crypto Art

These expensive works are not actually ‘real’… so are they still art?

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_{Text Credit: Kate Jackson @theSUN}

MICK JAGGER’S new single with Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl came as a surprise to fans.

But many would be more shocked to learn that a 30-second animation accompanied by the song, Eazy Sleazy, sold for £36,000 at an online auction last night.

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The collaboration between the Rolling Stones singer and 3D artist Extraweg is just the latest high-profile piece of ‘cryptoart’

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Eazy Sleazy, sold for £36,000 at an online auction

The collaboration between the Rolling Stones singer and 3D artist Extraweg is just the latest high-profile piece of “cryptoart” — a work that only exists digitally in cyberspace — to have sold for megabucks.

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Cryptoart can vary from videos, images and audio files to Gifs, memes and even tweets. In most cases, anyone can view them online and even copy them and share them.

So what does a person get when they buy one? Basically, just the right to say they “own” it. But that has not stopped the market going mad.

An artist called Beeple sold his digital collage Everydays: The First 5000 Days for £50MILLION, last month, making him the third most valuable living artist.

Before that, the 39-year-old American — real name Mike Winkelmann — had not sold anything for more than £75.

It was the first digital-only sale to be held by renowned auction house Christie’s.

Yet any of us can look at the digital image, so what did the winning bidder get for their £50million? They bought a non-fungible token (NFT), which is like a certificate to say you own the original art.

NFTs use the same blockchain technology as cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, to act as a digital record of who owns what. They are paid for using virtual currencies, too.

Ivan Soto-Wright, CEO of Moonpay, a global payments solution firm for crypto- currency, said: “If you think of buying a Picasso, how do you know that the Picasso is real? That’s the work of an appraiser, who could tell you. What’s valuable with that Picasso is that it’s the original.”

“You can now do that in the digital world, and that’s what gives the value. You can have the copy of a digital file but that’s not the same as having the artist give you a digital signature proving that it is his or her original piece of art.”

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sold the NFT to the first ever tweet, which he posted on March 21, 2006: “just setting up my twttr.” It went for £1.7million, which he has donated toward Covid-19 relief work in African countries.

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An artist called Beeple sold his digital collage Everydays: The First 5000 Days for £50MILLION

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The 39-year-old American (real name Mike Winkelman) had not sold anything for more than £75

@beeple ‘s ‘The First 5000 Days’, the 1st purely digital NFT based artwork offered by a major auction house has sold for $69,346,250, positioning him among the top three most valuable living artists. Major Thanks to @beeple + @makersplaceco. More details to be released shortly— Christie’s (@ChristiesInc) March 11, 2021

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Rapper Ja Rule is now selling a tweet about his disastrous Fyre Festival in 2017. And Canadian singer Grimes, partner of tech billionaire Elon Musk, has sold £4million worth of her own artwork NFTs.

The NFT for a 16-second clip of a spinning gold gummy bear called Not Forgotten, But Gone, by artist WhIsBe, sold for £720,000.

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A meme of a cat and a rainbow called Nyan Cat, which anyone can see on YouTube, sold for £400,000.

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CLICK HERE to see: Youtube – Nyan Cat [original] 187,383,990 views

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Rock band Kings Of Leon reportedly made £1.4million by selling latest album When You See Yourself as an NFT, becoming the first band ever to do such a thing.

And a company that specialises in blockchain technology bought a real artwork by street artist Banksy for £68,000, then set it on fire on a live Twitter stream — and sold the clip as an NFT for £280,000.

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Canadian singer Grimes, partner of tech billionaire Elon Musk, has sold £4million worth of her own artwork NFTs

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A % of the proceeds from the #NFT sales will be donated to @carbon_180. A new breed of climate-focused NGO working to build a world that removes more carbon than it emits.

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Ivan Soto-Wright of MoonPay added: “It’s opening up a lot of potential for artists and musicians. The art world is very closed. There’s a network of people who might buy at an art show, whereas now, anyone with the internet has the opportunity to own whatever asset has been created.”

“There’s a lot of excitement around NFTs but we’re still in the experimental phase.”

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But not everyone is an NFT fan. With tongue firmly in cheek, comedian John Cleese adopted the moniker Unnamed Artist to sell an iPad picture he drew of New York’s Brooklyn Bridge.

The 81-year-old tweeted: “Though bidding starts at $100, you can Buy It Now for $69,346,250.50!” Yet supporters believe NFTs are a good way for digital artists to earn a living in an area that has been difficult to monetise.

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Critics such as Anya Zakharova, managing director of Stellar International Art Foundation, believe buyers of digital art miss out on that unique experience of enjoying physical paintings.

She said: “Anything can be turned into an NFT — brand logos, music, pictures, the list goes on. This removes the artistic genius we all feel when standing in front of a masterpiece in the National Gallery.”

Mohit Tater, CEO of Blackbook Investments, which advises people on digital assets, said: “NFTs are popular because of bragging rights. Of course, it doesn’t compare to seeing the original, like seeing the Mona Lisa in The Louvre in Paris, but it is new-age art that’s getting its moment in the limelight.”

And while prices might be high right now, Mohit says it will almost certainly burst.

He said: “There is way too much demand and not enough supply. Once there is enough supply, the prices will go down.”

So, in future, we might all be able to afford a piece of digital art. Then we just need to worry about finding a virtual frame to put it in.

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