Sotheby’s is auctioning Banksy works of art in ETH

“1,000 ethers for the first, 1,000 ethers for the second, 1,000 ethers for the third – sold!” This is what the Sotheby’s auction on November 18th could sound like.

The traditional auction house Sotheby’s will auction the artworks of the The Now Evening Auction. There are two works by street artist Banksy: “Love is in the Air” and “Trolley Hunters”. The special thing about the auction is not only that Banksy has remained anonymous to this day, but also that the auction of his works is only offered with Ethereum (ETH).

Usually you buy your treasures for US dollars at the New York auction house. But normally, with a successful auction, you do not acquire digital, but physical works. It was different recently at the auction of the Beeple work “HUMAN ONE” at Christie’s auction house. This was sold as a physical stature and as a non-fungible token (NFT), as BTC-ECHO reported on November 11th.

Sotheby’s in transition

Now, Christie’s largest competitor, Sotheby’s, is also taking a giant step towards the crypto space. And not without reason, because both blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies offer artists, distributors and administrators completely new business models and options. In this way, artists can tokenize their works of art, making it possible to create originals in digital space: the keyword is NFT. In this way, they ensure their earnings from the works for a long time to come. The auction house Sotheby’s organized a curated exhibition with auctions in its own metaverse back in October. Among other things, “CryptoPunk” and “Bored Ape Yacht Club” NFTs were sold for millions.


At the upcoming auction of “Love is in the Air” and “Trolley Hunters” by Banky, revenues from Ethereum worth between four and six million US dollars are expected. That will depend heavily on how the ETH price develops up to November 18th. At the time of writing, it is trading at $ 4,636.05, up 1.82 percent from the previous week, up 32.43 percent from last month.

The work of art “Love is in the Air” shows a demonstrator throwing a bouquet of flowers. “Trolley Hunters” (shown as cover picture) shows three sporadically dressed hunters. Your prey appears to be three shopping carts in the distance. In view of the current situation in Great Britain caused by the Brexit of empty supermarket shelves, Banksy’s work is once again meeting the ravages of time – even though the art is already 15 years old.


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