Sotheby’s will field live bids in Ether (ETH) cryptocurrency for two works by Banksy, Trolley Hunters and Love Is In The Air (2006), when auctioneer Oliver Barker takes the rostrum in New York on 18 November 2021. It marks the first time a cryptocurrency will serve as the standard currency for bidding on physical artworks in real time during a live auction. Both works make their auction debuts as part of the inaugural The Now Evening Auction.
The announcement follows Sotheby’s becoming the first auction house to accept cryptocurrency as a payment option for a physical work of art, when a separate Banksy painting was offered in the May 2021 Contemporary Evening Auction. Ether is the world’s second largest cryptocurrency by market value and a preferred currency for the digital art and NFT community, as the Ethereum blockchain is the primary network where NFTs are minted and transactions are registered.
While bidding increments for both works will be announced in Ether, the winning bidders will have the option of paying the hammer price in fiat currency or in the three cryptocurrencies accepted by Sotheby’s: Ether (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC) and USD Coin (USDC). The auction will be livestreamed across Sotheby’s social media channels, including its Discord channel, and via Sothebys.com. A virtual exhibition is on view through Sotheby’s HQ in Decentraland.
Trolley Hunters, estimated at $5 million to $7 million, is a witty and prophetic critique of society’s predilection for processed and packaged products. It depicts three prehistoric figures hunting a herd of empty supermarket trolleys. Painted more than 15 years ago and unveiled in the artist’s breakthrough exhibition Barely Legal in Los Angeles in 2006, the work reads as an indictment of consumerist excess, its relevance sharpened by recent disruption to the global supply chain.
Love Is In The Air, estimated at $4 million to $6 million, is a quintessential Banksy painting. Its subject adopts the archetypal pose of civic unrest, preparing to hurl a projectile toward an unseen foe, but the artist replaces the object with a bunch of flowers, turning an image of violence into a call for peace. The work is further distinguished by the inclusion of hand-painted flowers in oil, a feature rarely seen in Banksy’s oeuvre.
(Press Release)
