Damien Hirst burns thousands of works for the NFT project
Damien Hirst’s NFT project “The Currency” has come to an end, an experiment that explored the dynamics of art in the Web3. As a result, collectors were left with a decision of whether they wanted to burn the NFT for a physical artwork or have the physical art burned and maintain ownership of the digital asset.
The decision from collectors came down to an almost 50% split, meaning Hirst will have to burn close to 5,000 physical works of art – this includes 1,000 pieces owned by the artist himself, in a decision to burn 100% of his own physical works and keep them all as NFT -is.
I’ve been all over the shop with decisions, trying to figure out what to do. In the beginning, I thought I would definitely choose everything physically. Or mostly physically haha. Then I thought half and then I felt like I had to keep all my 1000 as NFTs and….
— Damien Hirst (@hirst_official) 27 July 2022
A total of 5,149 NFTs were exchanged for their physical counterparts, meaning that the NFT version of the works is now slightly more scarce.
Inspired by bank notes, each physical work is handmade and started with a specially made paper that has a watermark of Hirt’s head. The works also include unique handwritten titles such as “I know you’re going to sell me,” and a hologram, signature and microdot for proof of authenticity.
The Currency was the artist’s first ever NFT project and was launched in July during what was the peak of the NFT market. The works that made up the collection were created in 2016 and then minted onto the blockchain in collaboration with HENI and Palm.
Burning NFTs in exchange for a physical good or an alternative benefit is not unheard of in space, but burning a physical of significant value to keep NFTs is a concept developed by Hirst.
“I’ve been in the physical art world for a long time and I expect people to have agendas and I’ve seen a lot of bollox and I’m amazed at how this community breeds support and seems to care about things so in the end I decided that i had to keep all my 1000 currency as NFTs,” Hirst tweeted.
Designed to explore the boundaries of art and currency, the project was initially put up for sale for a new price of approximately US$2,000. At the time of writing, the floor price for the NFT works is now 5.6 ETH (about $9,000 USD).
Since The Currency, Hirst has launched another collection inspired by the art he did for Drake’s Certified Lover Boy album cover in November – the second collection was distributed as an airdrop to holders of The Currency NFT.
In other news, Daniel Arsham, Misha Kahn and Andrés Reisinger are designing metaverse properties for “The Row.”
For more news on blockchain, cryptocurrency, NFTs and Web3, visit Hypemoon.com.
