Many of the world's richest, most powerful people have a flare for fine art, but now one has a flair for art they don't even own. As celebrities often become collectors of famous art pieces created by some of the most highly esteemed artists of all-time,they're not afraid to spend millions of dollars to acquire these one-of-a-kind pieces. These historic and legendary pieces of art are then used to frame the mantels of the rich and famous, and find homes on the walls of enormous mansions and estates that are worth millions of dollars. Well, sometimes. In this particular instance, someone has just spent a jaw-dropping $69.4 million on art that they will never own.
The New York Times reports that Everydays — The First 5000 Days, has just set the record as being the top priced digital sale at Christies.
The recently purchased, very expensive piece of art is essentially a computerized jpg image that was created by Beeple. It is considered to be digital art, which is also known as an NFT. For those who are new to this elaborately priced digital art form, an NFT translates to a 'non-fungible token," which basically means that Christie’s auction house has just sold the rights to the image for the high price of $69.4 million, without handing over any tangible piece of physical art.
According to Online Only, this digital image was featured during a two-week online auction, which ultimately resulted in more than 180 bids. The final sale price of $69.4 million is deemed as being the "the third-highest ever for a living artist, and the most anyone has ever paid for a non-fungible token, or NFT."
Many people have questions about this sort of expensive art purchase and are wondering if this same exact image isn't available for free, and the answer is, yes, it absolutely is. For no cost at all, the average consumer and online surfer can access the very same image online, with exceptional ease. The only difference is that now, there is one person in the world that can officially lay claims to having a certified digital certificate, naming them as the owner of the collage.
The collage itself was created by Mike Winkelmann who has taken individual images for 5,000 days and assembled them together as a collage to create this masterpiece. According to Global News, He then "assembles his artwork from digital models on his computer. Many of his pieces use models of world leaders, while many others involve Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story."
It remains true that a buyer just sank $69.4 million into non-tangible art that exists entirely in the realm of cyberspace, in spite of the fact that absolutely anyone can easily download that same image online, or off a basic Google image search. That certificate will hopefully prove to be very valuable in the future.
Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.
Sources: Global News, Online Only New York Times