LONDON: Christie’s said on Thursday it had auctioned off a digital collage by an artist named Beeple for nearly $70 million, in an unprecedented sale of a digital artwork that fetched more money than physical works by many better known artists.

The piece, titled Everydays: The First 5,000 Days, sold for $69.4m, “positioning him among the top three most valuable living artists”, Christie’s said via Twitter.

It further said it also marked the first time a major auction house had offered a digital-only artwork with a non-fungible token as a guarantee of its authenticity as well as the first time crypto currency has been used to pay for an artwork at auction.

Beeple, whose real name is Mike Winkelmann, responded to the sale result with an expletive on Twitter.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2021