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/

Interesting NFTs
Alex in Wonderland
A figure, Alex, stands mostly naked in the midst of a physical and psychological maelstrom. He is clad only in nostalgic 80’s era socks, on a tenuous island between active waters and a variety of shark denizens. Sharks on the right side of the image are all beached, including a shark with a quartz crystal snout, an orange shark wrapped in a life buoy, and a shark further in the distance wearing an 80’s style shirt with the number “88”. On the left side is the largest shark, wearing bright glossy red lipstick and brandishing prominent teeth with braces. She is cordoned off from the figure by a roped float divider, and within her thought bubble is a warning symbol. Behind the figure, hovering in the air, are Grey aliens emerging from the distance, out of a series of elliptical UFO shaped interdimensional membranes. The Greys take on the visual form of spermazoa ostensibly impregnating the interdimensional thresholds. As is typical, these Greys inhabit a zone just behind the unconscious topology of Alex’s dissociative mind. Though Alex’s bottom half is representative, his top half mutates into a psychological cornucopia. In a manner akin to “Auto-Erotic Sphinx”, a predecessor work, the figure has self suctioned—an act of sensual infatuation, enjoyment, and exploration. Upward exists the figure’s primary conscious eye, adorned with a revolutionary beret emblazoned with a Bitcoin badge. The figure’s summit features the nose of a fighter jet facing off against video game Bullet Bills, one of whom is marked by a communist North Korean star. A cropped section of a UFO observes the contest. Alex’s mind branches both left and right. To the left is more singular embodied consciousness, manifesting two eyes and a Ganesh trunk grasping crayons. The right branch dissociates upward diagonally, emerging into an array of eyes, faces, teeth, tail, a unicorn horn, and much more—all of which participate in expressing his unconscious being; a democracy of psychic factions representing thought impressions and associations. All illumination and darkness– fernal, infernal, high consciousness and corporeal underbelly–reside in this realm. In the distance are relatively languid, light clouds, and against the firmament hovers a colossal distant eye peering over the scene and far beyond. This painting possesses underlying genetic traits with previous works such as “Auto-Erotic Sphinx with Toys”, “Dionysus”, and “Fuku-Shiva”. The work serves also as a nod to an earlier period of art inspiration during late teens and early twenties— born out of the nakedness, vulnerability, curiosity, and wonder inherent to coming of age and all subsequent psychedelic revelation.
RARE SALMON SPOCK WHIXTENSIONS
Good morning! I'm RARE SALMON SPOCK WHIXTENSIONS. I want to live in a world where people believe that one day cats will rule this planet. When I'm not siring for status, I'm pole dancing! Can't wait to eat steak with you!
Tile [7, 13] - The Notch
7 13
缥缈之美的过去与现在(Vanitas Then and Now)
虚空派的画像。在这个虚拟时代,外在之美到底是否还受到时间的限制?(Vanitas portrait of a woman. Is beauty finite or not in the Virtual age?)
Poem by Sangi Hitoshi, from the series One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets, Explained by the Nurse
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) Poem by Sangi Hitoshi, from the series One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets, Explained by the Nurse late 1830s - Japan