[There are artistic realms · artisi] Art = currency?Famous artists burned thousands of original works for NFT projects

Author:China Well -off Time:2022.08.01

British artist Damien Hirst announced that it would burn thousands of paintings in London Gallery as part of its one -year NFT project "The Currency".

Herst and his work.

According to CNN CNN, from September 9th, visitors of the Heaster Private Museum Newport Street Gallery will be able to see part of his 10,000 oil paintings. These oil paintings are created in 2016, and and also Last year with NFT.

The floor price of these NFT is $ 2,000, and buyers can choose to keep or use it in exchange for physical oil paintings. For those who choose to retain the NFT version, the original painting will be burned and will be exhibited before being burned. The deadline for decision is July 27. The data shows that 4851 people want their paintings to be burned in exchange for the digital version of NFT, and 5149 collectors choose to replace their NFT with the physical version.

These artworks will be burned every day during the event starting on September 9, and will eventually be closed during the London Frieze Week event in mid -October. At that time, the remaining paintings will be destroyed.

Hrst art work.

Hester told the Art News in March that this project is the most excited project so far. "It touches the idea of art as a currency or wealth storage." He added, "This project explores the boundaries of art and currencies -when art becomes a currency, when currency becomes art. Using art is not a coincidence. They do this to make us believe in money. Without art, it is difficult for us to believe anything. "

Of course, Helster has used the market for decades as the medium of his art. In 2007, he produced the "For The Love of God" sculpture, which consists of a platinum casting of human skulls in the 18th century, with 8601 diamonds inlaid. The work was sold to a consortium including himself at a price of £ 50 million in August 2007.

Hrst and "for the Love of God".

In 2008, the week when the Lehman brothers closed down and the global economic collapse, Helrst sold 218 works from his studio for £ 111 million (more than 200 million US dollars at the time) through the Sotheby's auction house. This activity not only has an unprecedented scale and ambitious, but also reduces the market of middlemen in the gallery. Since then, the market has never really recovered.

As for the sales of "The Currency", a monthly report that analyzes the sale of Hrst NFT in the secondary market states that since the beginning of the project, the value of the secondary market has declined sharply and has plummeted as cryptocurrencies. The report pointed out that from July 30 to August 31, 2021, the sales of "The Currency" were 2036 times and the total sales were $ 47.9 million. However, in June this year, only 170 sales were conducted, with a total revenue of $ 1.4 million.

The reconstruction of Hrst's physical works seems better. In January, his original painting was sold at the price of £ 18,900 at the Philips auction house in London.