- X says Brazil service restoration 'inadvertent' and 'temporary'
- Amazon drought leaves Colombian border town high and dry
- Some Cubans depend on sugar water as food shortages bite
- Saudi crown prince says no Israel ties without Palestinian state
- Canada to further cut international student, foreign worker permits
- YouTube launches new TV-focused tools for creators
- White Sox heading for worst season in MLB history
- China the top challenge in US history: senior diplomat
- Hong Kong democracy tycoon's son warns time running out
- New migraine drugs no better than cheap painkillers: big study
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs again denied bail in sex trafficking case
- Brewers clinch division title as MLB playoff race heats up
- Man City blunted by 'giant' Inter in Champions League stalemate
- US stocks dip despite larger Fed interest rate cut
- Man City held by Inter as PSG pinch win in Champions League
- All Blacks recall Beauden Barrett for Australia Test
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 20, wound 450
- Spurs late show saves Postecoglou blushes at Coventry
- PSG snatch late goal to beat Champions League debutants Girona
- Gittens' late double gives Dortmund Champions League win at Brugge
- Man City blunted by Inter in Champions League stalemate
- Hidden talent: French Olympic star Marchand opts for disguise
- MrBeast named in California lawsuit over 'Beast Games' show
- Gauff splits with Gilbert as coach after 14-month run
- Hundreds of thousands at risk in Sudan's El-Fasher: UN
- Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge
- Venezuelan opposition candidate says letter conceding election was coerced
- Ukraine official claims Russian advance in Kursk has been 'stopped'
- X update allows app to bypass Brazil ban: internet providers
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill 14, wound 450
- US Fed makes aggressive rate cut, weeks before election
- Arsenal's Odegaard faces lengthy injury absence
- India coal expansion risks massive methane growth: report
- China the top challenge in US history, top diplomat says
- US Fed makes larger half-point cut in first reduction since 2020
- Ronaldo's Al Nassr appoint former AC Milan boss Pioli
- Ainslie 'relieved' as British book place in Louis Vuitton Cup final
- Struggling Roma replace sacked icon De Rossi with Ivan Juric
- Women's NBA will add 15th team in Portland in 2026
- Brazil fires need harsher punishment: environmental police boss
- Boeing to start large temporary furloughs amid Seattle strike
- Fears of all-out war as new Lebanon device blasts kill nine, wound 300
- 'Emergency' declared over falling UK butterfly numbers
- McIlroy outlines threats to golf peace deal
- Stock markets, dollar slip before US rate decision
- Russian advance in Kursk 'stopped': Ukraine official to AFP
- UN members demand end to 'unlawful' Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories
- Snapchat pushes 'safer' platform image, but not everyone agrees
- Three dead, 100 wounded in new wave of Lebanon device explosions
- So where does the oceans' plastic waste come from?
RBGPF | 5.79% | 60.5 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.02% | 25.055 | $ | |
AZN | 0.06% | 78.58 | $ | |
GSK | -0.31% | 42.43 | $ | |
NGG | -0.46% | 70.05 | $ | |
CMSD | -0.12% | 24.98 | $ | |
RELX | -0.82% | 47.37 | $ | |
SCS | 0.71% | 14.11 | $ | |
RIO | -0.02% | 62.91 | $ | |
BP | -0.37% | 32.43 | $ | |
RYCEF | 1.37% | 6.55 | $ | |
VOD | 0.49% | 10.23 | $ | |
BCC | 1.33% | 137.06 | $ | |
BCE | 3.09% | 35.61 | $ | |
JRI | 0.45% | 13.44 | $ | |
BTI | -0.34% | 37.88 | $ |
Auctioneer Sotheby's sees double benefit to crypto wave
Sotheby's auction house is almost three centuries old but its top brass want to embrace the cutting edge of technology and all of its buzzwords -- metaverse, NFT and crypto among them.
"The reason Sotheby's has existed for 277 years is because we have a history of embracing innovation and so NFTs is no different," Charles Stewart, the firm's American chief executive, tells AFP in an interview.
He is talking about non-fungible tokens, the ubiquitous digital objects that are linked to pieces of art or other items, some of which the ancient auction house has sold for millions of dollars over the past year.
And even better for Stewart's business, he says there is plenty of cross-pollination between the old and new art worlds.
"The traditional art world is hearing a lot about NFTs. Many don't understand it. Some have embraced it. But there's absolutely a curiosity," he says on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
"The same is true the other way around. (For) a lot of young technology investors -- in particular founders, entrepreneurs -- NFTs has been a gateway into the broader art market."
By way of example, crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun shelled out more than $70 million at Sotheby's for a work by Swiss-born 20th artist Alberto Giacometti last year.
Over at rival auction house Christie's, a collector paid a similar amount for an NFT by a US artist known as Beeple.
- 'Explosion of interest' -
Opinions on the merits of NFT art vary wildly.
The most famous collections -- Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks -- feature cartoon images replicated 10,000 times with algorithm-generated variations.
They are often pilloried for blocky graphics or tacky animation style.
Also, those who buy NFTs do not get a physical product, rather they receive a verified entry on a blockchain -- essentially a piece of computer code.
The value comes from the supposed rarity or fame of the object, often driven by celebrity endorsements.
Stewart is unruffled by such criticisms -- Sotheby's has sold both CryptoPunks and Bored Apes for millions of dollars -- and he expects the market to continue to boom.
"This year we're seeing the overall NFT market could be $40 or $50 billion," he says.
For comparison, the traditional art market raised around $50 billion in total last year.
"It was only a year ago that NFTs burst onto our collective awareness and consciousness, and you've seen an explosion in interest since then," he says.
But Stewart says there is more to the NFT trade than hard cash.
"We're not looking at it so much as a specific dollar or euro amount as we are just the engagement of an audience," he says.
"Whether the prices rise or fall, if the interest is there, if the engagement is there, if new creators are connecting with audiences through NFTs and crypto, that's an important trend that we're going to invest behind."
M.Furrer--BTB