Yahoo Finance NFT exhibition 'worth $20m' to open in London
A non-fungible token (NFT) exhibition, with artworks toted to be collectively worth more than $20m (£14.5m), is coming to London and will show what the gallery calls some of the rarest works on the market in real life.
An NFT is a one-of-a-kind crypto asset that enables collectors to authenticate, own and trade original versions of special digital goods using blockchain technology.
They can be anything digital from drawings and paintings to music, but they can also be applied to a physical item such as coins or a stamp.
In economics, a fungible asset is something with units that can be readily interchanged, like money. You are able to swap a £10 note for two £5 notes and it will have the same value.
However, if something is non-fungible, it has unique properties so it cannot be interchanged with something else.
Headlined by NFT pioneers CryptoPunks, six 'Sealed' artworks will be printed as unique lithographs and signed by Larva Labs co-founder John Watkinson and displayed in the HOFA Gallery.
The ‘Sealed’ prefix refers to these rare works being accompanied by a special wax-sealed envelope containing the 12-word ‘seed phrase’ that grants ownership and irrevocable access to the NFTs online.
There have only been 24 Sealed CryptoPunks of this kind ever made. With five having recently been auctioned by Sotheby’s London, four set to be auctioned this month by Christie’s Hong Kong, and the rest in private collections.
‘Portrait of an Era’, which runs from 23 September to 7 October, will give crypto-watchers the chance to see the six Punks exhibited together at HOFA Gallery.
Works from CryptoPunks, Autoglyphs, Meebits and Fidenza will also be shown.
Featured NFT works include the trending Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), whose floor price has recently soared in value from $15,000 to upwards of $145,000 over the course of just six weeks.
Read more: Non-fungible Tokens: What are NFTs?
Dutch artist Joseph Klibansky’s sculptural works will also be curated alongside canvases by French artist Sepand Danesh, whose works were recently showcased at the Dubai Expo 2020.
The show will also mark the genesis NFT drop by British designer and artist King Nerd who is renowned for his intricate engraving work.
It will be open to the public in-gallery and across HOFA's VR mobile and web App (HOFA.io).
NFTs have taken the art world by storm over the last year and a half.
In March, digital artist Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, sold an NFT of his work for $69.3m at Christie’s in New York, putting him among the top three most valuable living artists. It became the most expensive NFT ever sold.
Elsewhere, even digitally created horses with unique algorithms have been sold. Zed Run, a company that launched in early 2019 with horses selling for as little as $30, recently sold a stable of digital racehorses for more than $250,000.
While there is hype, these artworks do not come without their risks. In August, an art collector who spent $336,000 on a fake Banksy NFT advertised through the artist's official website, has told the BBC he felt "burned" by the dupe.
A link to an online auction for the non-fungible token was posted on a now-deleted part of the graffiti artist's website, Banksy.co.uk in an apparent hack of the website.
Watch: What are the risks of investing in cryptocurrency?
