Beeple’s Museum Debut & Behind Sotheby’s NFT Shift
An Italian museum displays a sculpture by the NFT artist, and why Sotheby's is crypto cool
Cultured is a newsletter that gets readers up to speed on the most interesting things going on at the intersection of finance, art, collectibles, NFTs, and more. Cultured is produced by Otis, an alternative investment platform that was recently acquired by Public.com.
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🗞 STORIES OF THE DAY
With his museum debut, Beeple cements his place in the art world
Beeple, the digital artist whose NFT art became a sensation last year, will be making his museum debut in Italy. His first sculpture, HUMAN ONE, will be shown later this month at the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art in Turin.
Despite a gallery show last month and a $69 million NFT sale last year, the artist has yet to have a work in a museum. By going on display alongside icons like Francis Bacon and Julie Mehretu, Beeple is being placed among the highest-value artists.
HUMAN ONE is on loan to the museum from Ryan Zurrer, an avid NFT collector who bought the work for $29 million last November.
Our Take: Beeple’s transition to real-world art has paid off.
Beeple’s buzzy NFT projects generated lots of attention, but it’s his IRL art that’s made him a top-tier artist. Collectors of Beeple’s NFTs have no need to worry, though. Curatorial approval tends to boost an artist’s auction prices across the board because it makes collectors feel more confident in their investments. Still, it’s worth asking: do digital artists need to make physical works to get into a museum show?
Love it or hate it, Sotheby’s is crypto cool
The 278-year-old auction house has managed to rebrand itself for a new generation of collectors. By embracing NFTs and other hip categories, as well as new tech, Sotheby’s has managed to modernize faster than most of its competitors.
Sotheby’s got in early on the NFT game, which allowed it to get ahead of the other major auction houses. It sold nearly $100 million in digital collectibles last year, a significant showing but still far lower than OpenSea, which did $5 billion in sales.
The pandemic forced Sotheby’s to embrace things like live online bidding, Netflix-style predictive algorithms, and cryptocurrency payments. This brought in many of the young collectors that bought NFTs and other collectibles.
Our Take: Sotheby’s end goal is to convert younger collectors into fine art connoisseurs.
While Sotheby’s trendy categories like NFTs and sneakers have seen massive gains and record-breaking sales, they pale in comparison to the auction house’s modern and contemporary sales. Last year, its Modern and Contemporary department sold more than $4.3 billion worth of art. After getting young NFT lovers in the door, Sotheby’s will likely work to mold them into high-dollar fine art collectors.
✨ AROUND THE INTERNET
Coinbase is launching a three-part film featuring the Bored Ape community. It’s called “The Degen Trilogy” and Ape holders can play along.
Your mom is getting in on NFTs. No, really. Mothers are flocking to crypto as a way of building wealth for their families.
The first Fantastic Four comic from 1961 sold for a record $1.5 million at auction, 7x more than its pre-sale valuation.
Collectible LEGO-style figures of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky sold out within hours of their launch, raising nearly $150,000 for the Ukrainian war effort.
Check out the story of Umphrey’s McGee bass player Ryan Stasik’s quest for a 1979 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.
