The digital artist Mike Winkelmann, professionally known as Beeple, just sold an NFT—a “non-fungible token,” an asset on a cryptocurrency blockchain—of his image Everydays: the First 5000 Days at auction by Christie’s for $69,346,250. This is the third most expensive auction sale ever of a work by a living artist.
That brought plenty of publicity—both to Beeple and to NFTs themselves. But high art is a strange world, one that for decades has run on hype, pumping prices, the convenience of transferring large sums of money through nominal purchases across borders, and an increasing detachment from any physical reality. That makes it a natural match for the world of blockchain.
