English artist Damien Hirst burns artworks after selling NFTs, live-streams the event. Watch
The collective value of the artworks Damien Hirst burnt is said to be nearly £10 million.
English artist Damien Hirst is burning hundreds of his artworks after he sold a series of NFTs for them, several media reports said. He asked buyers who bought artwork from his new collection to make a choice between physical form or NFT. If they chose NFT, the corresponding artwork, he had promised, would be destroyed. As per the BBC, Hirst, 57, said burning the artworks felt "better than I expected." He live-streamed the event. The visuals showed him wearing a boiler suit. He and his assistants can be seen taking each artwork by tongs and putting it in a firebox.
The collective value of the artworks is said to be nearly £10 million. The Bristol-born artist had announced his NFT project in July 2021. Called 'The Currency' and made up of 10,000 NFTs, it grossed $25,000,000.
The reactions on social media ranged from disbelief to dismay. Some said the artist was doing this for theatrics.
One joked, "The newest project I’ve invested in is inspired by Damien Hirst, and allows you to burn (euthanize) your pet for an exact perfect replica in the metaverse! My son Mërj is bawling his eyes out asking where I took our cat Mëv. We are so early."
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One other tweeted, "Michelangelo nearly crippled himself painting the Sistine Chapel roof. Damien Hirst made millions from painting spots. The world went weirdly wrong somewhere. 🤷."
NFTs or non-fungible tokens are digital entities that identify ownership and authenticity of a property like pictures, video, audio, art, or some other creative work. They are meant to create a digital certificate of ownership. But NFTs do not have any legal validity and do not give any intellectual property rights of copyrights.
NFTs are called non-fungible so as to differentiate them from cryptocurrencies that are fungible.