04/10/2021 Doodles used to create Gary Vaynerchuk NFT collection sell for $1.2 million in Christie’s auction

Christie’s on Friday auctioned five art works that were created by entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk for his VeeFriends NFT collection.

The price tag? Just over $1.2 million.

“It feels like an out-of-body-experience,” Vaynerchuk told CNBC. “I view myself as a very creative and artistic person, but this is way bigger than me. ... It represents a paradigm shift and the consumer is intrigued.”

Whereas most NFTs auctioned by Christie’s are NFT minted, or blockchain verified, these particular works are the original characters that were hand-drawn by Vaynerchuk himself.

The VeeFriends collection is comprised of 10,255 character nonfungible tokens available for purchase via the cryptocurrencyethereum. Each token includes a “smart contract” with metadata that Vaynerchuk can use to interact with its buyer. Token holders also will be given exclusive access to an annual business event called VeeCon for three years after the NFT’s purchase. The first VeeCon will take place in Minneapolis in May.

Since launching the series earlier this year, the lowest listed price for one such token remains $50,000.

Vaynerchuk’s NFT doodle called “Empathetic Elephant” fetched the highest price at Friday’s auction, selling for $412,500. The lowest was called “Diamond Hands,” and went for $162,500.

NFTs are a type of digital asset created to track ownership of a virtual item usingblockchain technology. Such unique items could be artwork or sports trading cards — a market that Vaynerchukbecame familiarwith as a teenager, peddling baseball cards for thousands of dollars every week.

“I grew up with collectibles, antiques and sports cards,” Vaynerchuk said. “My mom and dad were into that stuff too, and they would have been intimidated even walking into Christie’s two decades ago and now their son is selling stuff in it. ... It’s the American dream.”

The original VeeFriends artwork was featured along with the full set of Curio Cards and Sets 1-3 of Art Blocks Curated in Christie’s Post-War to Presentlive auctionin New York. The auction furthers Christie’s foray into digital art sales, which have boomed in popularity this year along with a rise in the value of digital currencies like ether andbitcoin. Curio Cards, which is commonly viewed as the first digital art collectible on ethereum blockchain, fetched $1.2 million.

The market is growing rapidly, with some digital collectibles being sold for millions of dollars. In March, Christie’ssold a NFT by the artist Beeple for more than $69.3 million.

Arts

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/01/christies-auctioned-gary-vaynerchuks-nft-art-for-1point2-million.html

Interesting NFTs
Auto-Erotic Sphinx with Toys
In this image, a giant sphinx spoons itself in erotic play within an aquatic styled environment littered by various denizens. These creatures include symbols and archetypes both current and nostalgic–each inhabiting a rootedness within mass cultural adolescence. Among the roster are Servbots, video game inspired mushrooms, a Pacman-like creature, a distant sea faring rubber duck, creatures sporting the symbols reminiscent of popular anime, and a Pokemon-like rabbit (a novel incarnation of Ganesha indicated by the Shiva trident on its nose). In addition, a few sea creatures partly inspired by sea monsters of western antiquity conglomerate along the mid left side of the composition. The Sphinx itself is an amalgam of aquatic, fetishist, ancient Egyptian, and 80’s style adornments, both living, as in a clown fish, or material, such as a cassette tape. Nautically colored antennae receive somatic signals from the atmosphere, perhaps from the 8 Ball moon or giant ringed planet beyond.
Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)
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Once upon a time... a little boy named Leo loved to paint, draw and experiment. He also loved to play with blocks and chains, which drew him again and again into the rooms of his friends Michel and Angelo. Often they also met in virtual rooms of Cryptovoxels, Decentraland, Somnium Space or Sandbox to create new inventions, read books about new technologies, or just swing the brushes. But on this day something gigantic happened. A good friend of Leo came to visit and brought his girlfriend Mona, who wanted a piece of Leo's art on her skin. This was the birth of the NFT's, as Leo developed Non Fungible Tattoos in the Block Chain Dungeon of Michel and Angelo. From that day on people from all over the world came to get NFT's from Leo or one of his students, like "Skeenee the rat", who controls the NFT machine with his laptop. A new age began.
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The eye of providence blinks. Originally posted to tumblr June 26, 2012.