CryptoPunks Pulled From Auction & The Trendy Middle Market

HODLing at the last minute, and the rise of the collectibles market

Cultured is a newsletter by Otis that gets readers up to speed on the most interesting things going on at the intersection of finance, art, collectibles, NFTs, and more.

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🗞 STORIES OF THE DAY

A $30 million batch of CryptoPunks was pulled from a Sotheby’s auction right before the sale

• Last week was going to be a historic moment: Sotheby’s planned to auction 104 CryptoPunks in one lot worth up to $30 million. Then, just minutes before the sale was slated to start, the owner pulled the work.

• The owner of the Punks, which were bought in a single blockchain transaction, announced the decision on Twitter: “nvm, decided to hodl.” Mentions of the lot quickly disappeared from Sotheby’s website.

• When works are pulled from auction at the last minute, it’s usually because there’s no interest. It’s a strategy to stop the works from getting “burned,” or having them flop publicly and losing value. This rarely happens with banner lots like this one.

Our Take: The Punks’ owner may have been worried about flooding the market. 

We don’t know for sure, but it’s pretty unlikely that the work was at risk of being burned. Big lots like this are usually backed up by pre-sale guarantees. Some experts think the owner saw the plummeting value of crypto and didn’t want to risk a market correction. What happens when you flood the market before a crash? Ask Damian Hirst.

Would’ve been fun…

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The “middle market” is the art world’s new darling

• In other words, the lower-price collectibles market. It’s broadly defined as items with values above $2,500 but less than $100,000. Think: works that are kind of expensive but not so expensive that you couldn’t afford them.

• The market has seen significant consolidation recently. Gurr Johns, a big advisory firm, bought a middle market auction house in the UK, and Bonhams pulled a similar move. 

• Middle market sales function differently from the big-dollar sales at Sotheby’s or Christie’s: they rely on high volumes and (comparatively) low prices. This approach fits well with the “Amazon generation” and its love of easy online sales.

Our Take: The popularity of the middle market shows us that the definition of a collector is changing.

The art world’s interest in the middle market suggests that it’s appealing to a broader swath of collectors. It’s also embracing a “treat yourself” mentality — very few working professionals can travel to London to buy a $1 million work for fun. But a $4,000 Hermes hard hat? That’s an expensive treat.

In case you need to flex at the construction site.

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✨ AROUND THE INTERNET

• Ukraine’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale is on hold for obvious reasons. One of the curators did manage to get one of the works out of the country in the backseat of her car.

• A rare Pikachu Illustrator card sold for $900,000 at auction, making it the most expensive Pokémon card in the world.

• New York’s Museum of Art and Design has added its first NFT work to its collection. NFT Diamonds, a project by Sebastian Errazuriz, examines the diamond industry.

• A ticket stub from Jackie Robinson’s 1947 debut on the Brooklyn Dodgers sold for $480,000 at auction. Another ticket, from MJ’s 1984 debut, went for $468,000.

• What are the uses of NFTs (besides more art collections)? The WSJ has some options.

Source: Twitter/José Trajtenberg