Sotheby’s, a prominent broker of fine and decorative art, has announced its plans to auction a number of non-fungible token (NFT) assets previously owned by the now-defunct crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC). The auction, called the “Grails” NFT collection, will take place during Marquee Sale Week at the firm’s New York location.
In July of last year, the crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) filed for bankruptcy protection, and Teneo took over as the liquidator for the firm. In February, Teneo announced its intentions to sell a significant non-fungible token (NFT) collection that the now-insolvent company had amassed. Sotheby’s, the luxury auction house founded in 1744, will auction several of 3AC’s blue-chip NFTs under the name “Grails Collection.”
On Wednesday, Sotheby’s tweeted about the upcoming auction, which will begin on May 19, 2023. The auction house’s metaverse division Twitter account noted that the collection was primarily curated by 3AC in 2021. One of the NFTs up for auction will be Dmitri Cherniak’s “Ringers #879,” also known as the “Golden Goose.” The collection will include Autoglyphs, Cryptopunk #6,649, Tyler Hobbs’ small-scale Fidenza #725, and Snowfro’s full-spectrum Chromie Squiggle #1,780.
Sotheby’s stated that the collection will be sold in various live and online auctions, as well as private sales, throughout the year. The company said on Wednesday that “7 hand-picked works from the collection will come to auction for the first time during Sotheby’s Marquee Sale Week this May in New York, one of the most anticipated moments of the annual auction calendar with the most high-profile sales of Contemporary and Modern Art.”
Sotheby’s first entered the NFT market in the fall of 2020 after an employee from the company’s Contemporary Art department proposed the idea. According to a Forbes article, NFTs helped drive the auction house’s highest-grossing year ever in 2021. Michael Bouhanna, Sotheby’s head of digital art and NFTs, stated that the emergence of the Grails collection “marks a significant opportunity for collectors to celebrate the pioneering generative artists.”
“This expansive collection marks an important moment in the rise of generative art on the blockchain in 2021, and was guided by the 3AC ethos of acquiring the some of the highest quality and rarest works available on the market,” Bouhanna added. “Since that defining moment, when digital art and NFTs became a genuine pop culture phenomenon, generative art has continued to gain attention from a growing audience, including from major international institutions.”
The popularity of NFTs and their impact on the art market has been a hot topic in recent years. NFTs are unique digital assets that are verified on a blockchain, providing proof of ownership and scarcity. This has allowed digital art to be sold for high prices, with some pieces selling for millions of dollars. However, critics argue that the hype around NFTs is a bubble that will eventually burst.
Regardless of the debate around NFTs, it is clear that they have become a significant part of the art market. Sotheby’s entry into the NFT space is a testament to this. With the auction of the “Grails” NFT collection, Sotheby’s is providing a platform for collectors to acquire some of the rarest and highest-quality NFTs available on the market.
Jamie Redman, News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida, noted that NFTs helped drive Sotheby’s highest-grossing year ever in 2021. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011 and has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.
