What does a $69 Million JPEG mean for the future of art?

A JPG File Sells for $69 Million, as ‘NFT Mania’ Gathers Pace.

As the New York Times recently reported, “Everydays — The First 5000 Days,” set a record for a digital artwork in a sale at Christie’s. After a flurry of more than 180 bids in the final hour, a JPG file made by Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist known as Beeple was sold in an online auction for $69.3 million with fees. The price was a new high for an artwork that exists only digitally, incredibly beating auction records for physical paintings by museum-valorised greats like J.M.W. Turner, Georges Seurat and Francisco Goya. Making it the third highest price for a living artist behind Jeff Koons and David Hockney.

Bidding at the two-week Beeple sale, consisting of just one lot, began at $100 ultimatelyreaching the staggering$69.3 million.

NFT or nonfungible token is primarily bought using a cryptocurrency. Elon Musk’s recent $1.5 billion investment in crypto currency has dramatically increased the value of a bit coin.

Is this sustainable and how could it impact on the traditional artworld?

Todd Levin, a New York art adviser who saw Leonardo’s “Salvator Mundi” sell at Christie’s for $450.3 million in 2017, said he had “mixed emotions” about the Beeple sale.

“On the one hand, it’s super exciting to witness a historical inflection point,” Levin said. “On the other hand, the amount of money involved could skew and damage a nascent emerging market.”

Although their popularity has increased in recent months, NFTs are nothing new. In 2017, when the value of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum first began to climb, there was a speculative craze for Dapper Labs’ CryptoKitties blockchain – certified images of cats. The rarest of which sold for over $100,000. The price of cryptocurrencies collapsed in 2018, and with it the nascent market for NFTs.

But now it appears to be back and like all hyped eras everyone is bidding to own the first or the rarest. Something they couldn’t display readily. It’s like being an anonymous secret, reclusive art collector of old. Owning art for their own personal consumption.

In my opinion I see all of this NFT conversation as a good thing. If it brings collecting and owning original works of art into the broader public domain, this can only be a super positive move. It signals very clearly that owning an original one-off piece, brings not only pleasure but it also is a statement of that collector’s taste. 

Good art will always be valued and monetised by collectors and artists. That relationship will always remain strong.