16/06/2023 Sotheby's Second Grails Auction of 3AC NFTs Brings in Nearly $11M

Ringers #879, a seminal NFT artwork often referred to as "The Goose," far outpaced estimates and sold for $6.2 million.

Tyler Hobbs Dmitri Cherniak Sothebys auction

Dmitri Cherniak's Ringers #879 "The Goose" and Tyler Hobbs' Fidenza #479. (Sotheby's)

On Thursday, Sotheby's concluded another sale of non-fungible token (NFT) artwork seized from bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), bringing in over $10.9 million in sales.

The live auction took place in New York and included pieces fromthe "Grails" collection. In total, there were 37 works from generative artists like Dmitri Cherniak, Tyler Hobbs, Jeff Davis and more.

Highlights from this lot included Dmitri Cherniak's Ringers #879 (often referred to as "The Goose" for its resemblance to the bird), estimated to sell for $2-3 million. After back-and-forth bidding, it ended up selling for$6.2 million to notable NFT investor 6529. In a tweet following the sale, Sotheby's reported it was the second-highest sale of all time for a work of generative art.

#AuctionUpdate: One of the most important works of post-blockchain generative art,@dmitricherniak’s Ringers #879 (The Goose) has just sold for $6.2 million, making it the 2nd highest generative art sale of all time.#SothebysGRAILShttps://t.co/dKyqxGbAIZpic.twitter.com/zkxoP21M9e

— Sotheby's Metaverse (@Sothebysverse)June 15, 2023

3AC co-founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies hadpurchased"The Goose" in August 2021 for about 1,800 ETH – worth roughly $5.8 million at the time. Michael Bouhanna, Sotheby's head of digital art and NFTs, told CoinDesk that the piece is a major highlight of Cherniak's portfolio and "one of the most significant works from the generative art movement."

In a statement, 6529 said that The Goose held cultural significance within the NFT community.

"On-chain long form generative art is an act of faith by the artist and the minter. Once the algorithm is committed to the blockchain, nobody knows what outputs it will produce. The Goose represents this more clearly than any generative NFT. We could have run the Ringers mint thousands of times without producing anything like it again. The Goose has had a historic journey so far through key moments in NFT history and I suspect its journey has just begun."

Other highlights included Tyler Hobbs' Fidenza #479, which sold for $622,300, Snowfro's Chromie Squiggle #1780, which sold for $635,000, Larva Labs' Autoglyph #218 and Kjetil Golid's Archetype #397, both of which sold for $330,200 each.Nearly all the NFTs in the auction sold for higher than their estimates.

#AuctionUpdate: A work from the genesis collection of@artblocks_io, full spectrum Chromie Squiggle #1780 by@ArtOnBlockchainhas just sold for $635,000, more than 3X the high estimate.#SothebysGRAILShttps://t.co/DJNdLLDNV3pic.twitter.com/YwkCZTWRXc

— Sotheby's Metaverse (@Sothebysverse)June 15, 2023

Last month, Sotheby's began its multi-part sale of NFTs from Three Arrows' extensive NFT collection, formed as part of 3AC's asset portfolio primarily in 2021. The Singapore-based hedge fundfiled for bankruptcy in Julyand its liquidator Teneo has outlined its intention to sell the expansive list of NFTs estimated to be worth millions in order to recoup funds.

In the first Grails auction, Sotheby's said itbrought in nearly $2.5 million. Another group of works from the Grails collection was also recently sold privately for a combined total of over $3 million.

So far, the Grails collection liquidation sales have brought in nearly $17 million.

Sotheby's has saidthat the Grails collection contains "some of the most significant digital artworks ever assembled."

"From groundbreaking works that have transformed the art world to culturally significant pieces, this collection is poised to redefine the way we think about and appreciate digital art," the website reads.

Arts

https://www.coindesk.com/web3/2023/06/15/sothebys-second-3ac-nft-sale-nets-109m-with-the-goose-alone-netting-62m/