Beeple NFT Sells for $69 Million at Christie's, Shattering Auction Records
Digital artist Beeple makes history by selling an NFT for $69.3 million at Christie's, becoming the third most expensive living artist. The groundbreaking sale draws massive digital crowds and attracts a wave of new, younger collectors to the traditional auction house.
Digital artist Beeple makes history by selling an NFT artwork for a staggering $69.3 million at Christie's. This monumental sale marks the first time the prestigious auction house offers a purely digital NFT-based piece. With this record-breaking bid, Beeple officially becomes the third most valuable living artist at auction, placing him just behind David Hockney and Jeff Koons.
The auction sees explosive growth from a modest starting bid of just $100 on February 25. As the sale closes, the price escalates rapidly with massive $10 million and $15 million increments in the final two minutes. An incredible 22 million visitors flood the Christie's website to witness the historic final moments of the bidding war.
This groundbreaking event highlights a massive demographic shift in the high-end art market. A striking 91 percent of the bidders are completely new to Christie's, with millennials making up 58 percent of the participants and Gen X accounting for 33 percent. While older collectors express deep skepticism about the digital format, younger buyers embrace NFTs as the defining art of their generation.