In Brief:
- Beeple’s real-life sculpture and corresponding “dynamic” NFT titled ‘Human One’ sold for $28.9 million at Christie’s.
- This NFT is said to be updated periodically throughout Beeple’s career, making this one-of-a-kind piece of art.
Mike Winkelmann, popularly known as Beeple, once again made headlines with his first-ever physical sculpture ‘Human One’. This piece is a hybrid physical and digital work that was auctioned off for $28.9 million at Christie’s on Tuesday evening.
Ryan Zurrer, Former venture partner at Olaf Carlson-Wee’s Polychain capital won the bid at $25 million. Christie netted $3.9 million on top of that for the buyer’s premium, amounting to a gross value of $28.9 million. The auction was estimated at $15 million and interestingly fetched $10 million more than the assumed value.
Beeple hyped the NFT culture when his record-breaking artwork titled “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days” sold for a whopping $69.3 million in March. With this seven-foot-tall sculpture, Beeple again revived the NFT craze, fetching the second-largest sum paid for an NFT – or, at least, an artwork accompanied by a “dynamic” NFT.
Human One is a 3D life-size moving sculpture portraying a loop of footage of a person wearing a spacesuit walking through a variety of extraterrestrial climates. The art is engulfed in a box made up of LED screens with a rotating base that shows the viewer different angles of the sculpture.
As per Beeple, He will periodically edit the video playing on the screen using blockchain and will keep on updating the footage throughout his lifetime. The idea behind this “dynamic” NFT that has the ability to constantly shift the work even after purchase makes it extraordinary. In Winkelmann’s words, it’s like having “an ongoing conversation” between artist and owner.
Christie previously said the artwork sparked major interest in potential buyers soon after the sale of the statue was announced last month.
