According to Sotheby’s, it was the second-highest sale for a piece of generative art in history.
Ringers #879, a non-fungible token (NFT) by the generative artist Dmitri Cherniak, blew past estimates on Thursday during a live auction at the Sotheby’s auction house in New York City, selling for a hammer price of $5.4 million and a full price of $6.2 million inclusive of Sotheby’s buyer’s premium.
The artwork, also known as “The Goose” due to its resemblance to the animal, was the top item during Sotheby’s most recent auction of NFTs from the “Grails” collection that was taken from the insolvent cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC). The sculpture was expected to fetch $2–3 million at auction.
Garrett Skrovina tweeted that the sale in New York City was greeted with cheers after a competitive bidding war:
Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, co-founders of 3AC, paid about 1,800 ETH, or about $5.8 million at the time, for the collectible in August 2021. Cherniak’s work is a standout in his portfolio, according to Michael Bouhanna, head of digital art and NFTs at Sotheby’s, who told CoinDesk that it is “one of the most significant works from the generative art movement.”
It eventually sold for $6.2 million to renowned NFT investor 6529 after heated bidding. Sotheby’s stated in a tweet after the sale that it was the second-highest sale of all time for a piece of generative art.
The Goose is distinctive in its execution, according to a statement from 6529, and has a cultural significance among the NFT group.
“Both the artist and the minter are taking a leap of faith with on-chain long-form generative art. No one can predict what outputs the algorithm will produce once it is committed to the blockchain. This is better illustrated by The Goose than by any generative NFT. Without creating another item similar to it, we could have produced the Ringers mint thousands of times. The Goose has been through significant points in NFT history on a historic voyage thus far, and I believe its adventure has only begun.
A total of 37 pieces by generative artists, including Dmitri Cherniak, Tyler Hobbs, Jeff Davis, and others, were up for auction. Nearly all of the NFTs that were auctioned off sold for more money than expected.
The Grails collection liquidation sales have generated close to $17 million so far.
