North Charleston resident Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, fetched a record-breaking $69.3 million for a single digital artwork auctioned by Christie's. This week on the podcast, arts and entertainment reporter Kalyn Oyer and arts critic Maura Hogan help us break down how it happened and why it caused such a stir in the art world.
North Charleston resident Mike Winkelmann made history.
Better known as Beeple, on March 11, he fetched a record-breaking $69.3 million for a single digital artwork through the art auction house Christie's.
That winning bid is the third-highest price paid at auction for a work by a living artist.
While the image of the work, which is titled "Everydays: The First 5,000 Days," can be easily viewed and downloaded online, the digital file auctioned off was a non-fungible token, or NFT. It lives on a blockchain, will only be sold by Beeple once, and its authenticity and ownership can be verified.
This week, we dove into the details of this Lowcountry-based artist's sale and what it says about the art world in 2021.
Reporter Kalyn Oyer shares what she learned while talking with Beeple himself ahead of the Christie's auction. Gerald Dwyer, who teaches about blockchain and cryptocurrencies at Clemson University, breaks down how NFTs work, and Post and Courier arts critic Maura Hogan examines some of the big questions this sale raises about ownership, visual art and the internet.
Listen now for more.
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