Sotheby’s has revealed the 27 digital artists included in Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale, an online auction running from 3 to 10 June 2021. It marks the first time the house has brought a collection of leading NFT artists to auction, with works now available to preview.
The sale is co-curated by Sotheby’s and the crypto artist Robert Alice, and features work by Ryoji Ikeda, Pak, Don Diablo and Mario Klingemann, among others. Bidding for all works begins at $100, and buyers may pay with fiat currency or with Bitcoin or Ethereum.
Anchoring the sale is Kevin Mc Coy’s Quantum, the first known NFT, alongside an Alien Crypto Punk (Crypto Punk #7523). Pak, who previously sold $17 million of NFTs at the house, will release a new work exclusively for the sale, and the Flamingo DAO will become the first crypto-native organisation of its kind to auction an NFT at Sotheby’s.
The auction introduces what it describes as the first intelligent NFT (iNFT), To the Young Artists of Cyberspace by Robert Alice, made in collaboration with AI company Alethea AI. The work is designed to hold a conversation with viewers and to refine itself with each question asked, drawing on AI systems such as GPT-3.
One artist in the sale is nominated by the crypto and digital art community through submissions on Twitter using the hashtag #Natively Digital. The Mint Fund, a non-profit supporting creators outside the US and EU with a focus on BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ artists, has also selected a work, Perennial Links by Brazilian artist Ikaro Cavalcante.
A portion of the proceeds will go to the Sevens Foundation, a non-profit supporting digital artists, and the participating artists will donate part of their profits to organisations including the Mint Fund. Sotheby’s will also undertake a carbon offset study with Regen Network to offset the minting and transaction costs of the sale.
(Press Release)
