Sotheby’s joins the fashion for non-expendable tokens through a collaboration with digital artist Pak.
“We’ve been following the NFT space for a long time,” Charles Stewart, CEO of Sotheby’s, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” where he announced the auction house’s association with Pak. The next sale will launch next month.
“This is new to all of us,” Stewart added. “But there are a lot of things that are really exciting and we think you can stay in power.”
Pak has been producing digital art for decades, but the artist’s identity is unknown.
“The artist prefers to remain anonymous, in part because the artist wants it to be art, which is not necessarily something new in the art world,” Stewart said. “But it’s one of the many novelties about cryptoart, in particular, that I think is different and can be a little detrimental, certainly when you compare it to the world of traditional art.”
Sotheby’s decision, founded in 1744 and known for selling multimillion-dollar paintings and other luxury items, to embrace NFT represents the ultimate milestone in the flourishing digital art form. It comes after Christie’s last week sold an NFT collage for auction for $ 69 million, elevating its creator, Beeple, whose real name is Mike Winkelmann, to a place between the three most valuable living artists.
NFTs are blockchain-based assets that are unique in design, a scarcity that proponents say values their value. Ownership of a specific NFT is recorded on a blockchain network, distributed digital books that support cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
In addition to digital artwork, the highlights of basketball known as NBA Top Shots have become popular to buy as NFT. Earlier this month, rock band Kings of Leon released their latest album in NFT form.
Some have dismissed NFTs as a fad whose values will fall over time. Skeptics also point out that the rise of NFTs has coincided with a massive rise in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, famous for its volatility and ether, which operates on Ethereum’s blockchain network.
Winkelmann’s $ 69 million NFT buyer was the pseudonym cryptocurrency investor Metakovan.
Winkelmann has said he sees a number of applications for the digital infrastructure that support NFTs. “I really think it’s a technology that has so many use cases,” he told CNBC on Friday, which defined it as “a blank slate, even beyond digital art.” He added: “Whenever you want to prove ownership, I think there is a use case.”
But even for NFT-based digital art, it’s still “very soon, needless to say,” according to Stewart of Sotheby’s.
For its partnership with Pak, New York-based Sotheby’s will sell both digital art pieces and “open editions” to the NFT world, where many people can buy tokens for the same work, ”he explained. Stewart.
NFTs bring a new interest and “new aesthetic” to art, Stewart said, saying there is potential “to avoid many of the traditional doormen and verification processes in the physical art world.” He added: “This is really exciting and as it develops, we are very curious to see where it takes us all.”
Benoit Pagotto, co-founder of RTFKT, who helped create a collection of recently sold NFT-based digital sneakers, told CNBC that he hopes some people will take some time to catch the excitement around the col items Cryptographic collection.
“Educating and keeping people up to date is something we need to do,” Pagotto told Squawk Alley on Tuesday. “But at the same time, we know people will never understand it [NFTs], just like today, there are still people who don’t understand why sport is so strong and a cultural movement so strong. With these people, we will not spend too much time explaining. “
– Jessica Bursztynsky of CNBC contributed to this report.