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
Right Place & Right Time (bitcoin hourly price offset)
Each day, a new composition for the Master is generated autonomously using a data feed of Bitcoin's last 24 hours of price action. Each hour's price programmatically controls rotation, scale, and position of a correlating layer. Astute viewers will surmise the day's price volatility simply by examining the artwork. While the daily image generation is the result of autonomous API calls, utilizing an algorithm the artist wrote, the artist has chosen to retain a control token. This token allows him to fine-tune variables associated with his algorithm, in addition to addressing aesthetic concerns within the life-cycle of the artwork. Layer state, alpha, hue, saturation, and brightness are elements the artist has retained control of in order that this artwork remain a living work-in-progress. An earlier iteration of this artwork was featured as a nightly projection mapping video on the face of the Daniels Fisher Clocktower, as part of ETH Denver 2020. Access to this and additional exclusive content awaits the master token owner at the artist's NFT Portal: https://collect.mattkane.com/minted-works/right-place-right-time-bitcoin-hourly-price-offset/
Genesis
José Delbo sent me his striking pencil sketch and powerful inked work, which I then interpreted in oil on canvas. I wanted to create a very painterly piece with obvious brush marks etc, but I was also aiming for a nostalgic feel, a kind of 1980’s superhero comic book look, the kind I grew up with. My goal with this animation was to try to recreate, in part, the creative process that both artists went through with the visual information I had. I was able to showcase my painting process more accurately as I could take photographs of my progress throughout. Consecutive images could then be layered like brush strokes over José’s drawing to create the impression that this was one continuous artwork from pencil, to ink, to completed painting. The representation of the line sketch at the beginning, then pencil/ink and lastly the paint layers being applied demonstrate both artists’ struggle for the right lines, tone, form, and colour until the work is finally completed. As the oil was still wet with each photograph the glare of my studio lights can be seen in the brush strokes. Eventually, the figure emerges and as it does, our hero comes to life, looking directly at the viewer -- but is he grimacing in approval or disgust? We will never know for sure as just before he can say anything, white paint is brushed across the canvas entirely and the process begins again. Only the bat is quick enough to escape.
30K
Artist notes: the halving ceremony is the most unusual part of modern bitcoin production in which the owners bet on how efficiently an alpha can inseminate the market.
Made In Oregon
The Oregon Coast is a wonderland of public beaches and a sanctuary for all to enjoy. Standing above it all is Haystack Rock, located on Cannon Beach on the Northern Oregon Coast. This dynamic image was captured from the air and created using three images stitched vertically to showcase the entire scene from ocean sea to sky.
#52211
By OthersideDeployer