21/10/2021 Sotheby's Launches an NFT-Only Marketplace

Pak, Rubik's Lure, 2020
Pak,Rubik's Lure, 2020.Courtesy Sotheby's

Last Friday, Sotheby’s launched its NFT exclusive marketplace, Metaverse. It’s the first of its kind among blue chip auction houses, and all NFT sales at Sotheby’s will now take place on this cutting-edge platform. Yesterday, the platform began its inaugural sale.

a pixelated purple cat
MoonCat,#183, 2017Courtesy Sotheby's

The platform offers new technical advancements that the traditional Sotheby’s site could not previously implement on their main website. The layout of the Metaverse website, similar in format to NFT-specific platforms such as OpenSea and Nifty Gateway, is designed to display theNFTsso that viewers can easily see the transaction history of any piece. Yet, unlike these other platforms, Metaverse offers a description of each piece’s significance, alongside the artist’s biography. Additionally, those who sign up for Metaverse are gifted a profile picture designed by well-known NFT artist Pak.

Rare Pepe, RAREPEPE (Nakamoto Card), 2017.
Rare Pepe,RAREPEPE (Nakamoto Card), 2017.

The inaugural Metaverse sale, Natively Digital 1.2, showcases premier NFTs. The first iteration took place earlier this year, in June. Sotheby’s intends to make Natively Digital its flagship biannual (or twice per year) NFT auction. For this second iteration, the auction house is offering a level of curation not often seen in the NFT scene: they tapped 19 NFT collectors to offer choice selections from their collections. 53 lots in total have been made available, including NFT classics such as Crypto Punks from Larva Labs, sophisticated generative art from Art Blocks and Fingerprints DAO, and collectible Rare Pepe meme trading cards.

“We wanted to have a very diverse sale in terms of category but also in terms of price point,” Michael Bouhanna, co-head of Sotheby’s Digital Sales says. “We wanted collectibles, gaming NFTs, early NFTs from 2015, 2016, everything.”

The estimated bids ranges from $10,000 to $2 million. Bidding will end on October 26.

Arts

https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/sotheby-metaverse-nft-only-marketplace-1234607430/

Interesting NFTs
Ringers #879
There are an almost infinite number of ways to wrap a string around a set of pegs. On the surface it may seem like a simple concept but prepare to be surprised and delighted at the variety of combinations the algorithm can produce. Each output from 'Ringers' is derived from a unique transaction hash and generated in Javascript in the browser. Feature variations include peg count, sizing, layout, wrap orientation, and a few colorful flourishes for good measure.
The classical poet Ono no Komachi, one of the Six Immortal Poets
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) The classical poet Ono no Komachi, one of the Six Immortal Poets 1800s-1810s - Japan
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.
The Investor's Dream
The second "Visual Toy" about cryptocurrency and its universe that continues the exclusive collection on this theme. After the first Visual Toy, dedicated to the cryptocurrency itself, this visual toy is the other side of the coin. It represents, as its title tells us, the investor's dream, the current person and his financial hopes. A surreal fantasy of the dreams and longings of every investor, in this case the crypto investor. In this magical, happy and colorful dream, aspirations of all kinds intermingle, both the desire for great benefits, represented in a long animation that shows us a production cycle or series production that ranges from the gastronomic recipe of a two-ingredient cake. Bitcoin slice and Ethereum smoothie, passing through magic, represented in a fairy that transforms the cake into real money, which is sucked into a giant capsule to accumulate it and multiply it. The rest is full of investor aspirations, which appear in their dreams in the form of profits or screens that announce that values are rising steadily, as well as physical possessions, such as the sailboat, the helicopter, homes and other objects or possibilities. A dream full of happiness, fun and hope.
CryptoKitties
Sup playa! I'm Kitty #421876. I enjoy watching Stranger Things, tripping my owner, and spinning sick beats. I put marmite on everything. Like, everything: hot dogs, wet food—everything! We can be friends, but keep the ultra purrsonal stuff to yourself, please.