On March 11, 2021
Scott Reyburn reported in The New York Times that the NFT of Beeple's "Everydays—The First 5000 Days" sold for $69.3 million at Christie's online. "Everydays—The First 5000 Days" is a .jpg collage of all the images that the digital artist
Mike Winkelmann, who goes by the name of Beeples, posted onlline each day since 2007. The price realized placed the value of this digital art in the same realm or higher than the physical art of old masters such as as J.M.W. Turner, Georges Seurat, and Francisco Goya, whose reputation has been established for centuries.
"Rebecca Riegelhaupt, a Christie’s spokeswoman, said 33 active bidders had contested the work, adding that the result was the third-highest auction price achieved for a living artist, after
Jeff Koons and
David Hockney."
"Beeple’s collaged JPG was made, or “minted,” in February as a “
nonfungible token,” or NFT. A secure network of computer systems that records the sale on
a digital ledger, known as a blockchain, gives buyers proof of authenticity and ownership. Most pay with the Ethereum cryptocurrency. “Everydays” was the first purely digital NFT sold by Christie’s, and it offered to accept payment in Ethereum, another first for the 255-year-old auction house."
In an article announcing online auction of the digital collage in
The New York Times on February 24, 2021
Josie Thaddeus-Johns wrote:
"For a long time, Beeple felt dismissed by the art world. He is taking great pleasure at this crypto-fueled reversal. These works, most of which he offhandedly describes as “crap,” are suddenly being anointed by one of the art world’s most venerated auction houses. “The traditional art world is like: ‘Who’s this kid,’ but I also have 1.8 million followers on Instagram,” he said. “The Christie’s thing brings a level of validation for this.”
"The fine art world is “finally starting to recognize digital artists as real art,” he added."
Jeremy Norman’s
