Beeple sells art piece via NFT for $ 69 million
Digital artist (Mike Winkelmann) - better known as Beeple - sold a piece of his work called Everyday: The First 5,000 Days for $ 69 million, placing him among the top three artists alive, according to Christie's.
The record-breaking NFT sale comes after months of increased value auctions, with Beeple in October selling its first series of NFT business at $ 66,666 each.
In December, he sold a series of works for a total of $ 3.5 million, and last month, one of his works that had originally sold for $ 66,666 was resold for $ 6.6 million.
Some factors explain why Beeple's work has become so valuable, as it has developed a large fan base, with some 2.5 million followers through social channels.
Known to be prolific, Winckelmann creates and publishes new digital artwork every day as part of a project called Everyday, and the project is now in its 14th year.
Meanwhile, the NFT bubble has burst over the past month, and it is now seen as the way digital art is acquired and traded in the future.
For collectors, the escalating prices are nowhere near as much as the NFTs are worth when the rest of the world realizes their value.
Christie's is also a legitimate force for both Winckelmann's art and NFT as a technology, as the 255-year-old auction house has sold some of the most famous paintings in history, from the only known personal painting of Shakespeare to the last discovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci.
The piece that was sold is a collage of 5,000 photos that Winckelmann drew as part of the project.
And the auction winner doesn't get much other than a digital file, for the most part, as well as some obscure rights to present the image.
But Winckelmann expects to work with the buyer to find various ways to physically display the piece, whether it's on a TV in his home or on display.