WTF?

Basquiat NFT Auction Would Let Winner Destroy Original Drawing

“Free Comb with Pagoda” is thought to be worth at least $80,000, but bidding for the drawing’s “deconstruction” starts at $2,500.

An auction of a non-fungible token (NFT) tied to a drawing by Jean-Michel Basquiat would give the winning bidder the option of destroying the original. An NFT of Free Comb with Pagoda, a 1986 work by the late artist thought to be worth $80,000-$120,000, is for sale on the OpenSea online market, where bidding begins at one ethereum, roughly worth $2,500. The winning bidder will receive an encrypted token and, “at the winner’s discretion, the original artwork will be deconstructed, leaving the NFT as the only remaining form of Basquiat’s work to exist,” according to a press release. The group sponsoring the auction, Daystrom, said in a statement, “Value has become increasingly fungible, diluted and unstable in our evolving metaverse and there’s a tremendous spike in user demand for exclusivity. NFT assets provide this exclusivity and create an entirely new online value system that was previously unimaginable.”