The rise of crypto art: Power to the Beeple
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 27 April 2021
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
In March, one digital art creation titled: "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" by artist Beeple, sold for a groundbreaking $69.3 million. What is digital art and why has it taken the world by storm?
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Guests:
-Eddie Frankel, Art critics and art editor at Timeout.
-Jane Mulkerrins, Assistant editor of The Sunday Times Magazine.
Host: Manveen Rana.
Clips used: AP archive, CNN, Christies.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ever since the dawn of art and the birth of money, the two have been locked in an unhealthy |
| 0:10.6 | embrace. |
| 0:11.9 | People have always vied to own great art, to hang an original on their wall, works by |
| 0:17.6 | old masters and modern artists fetch millions at auction. |
| 0:22.6 | But what if you couldn't hang the art you'd bought on a wall? |
| 0:43.8 | What if everyone else in the world had as much access to it as you did? |
| 0:49.6 | On the 21st of March this year, Christie's in New York held an online auction. |
| 0:55.7 | There was just one lot on sale. |
| 0:58.3 | It was a digital artwork titled Every Days, The First 5,000 Days. |
| 1:04.1 | The Christie's auction for digital artist people, whose real name is Mike Winkelman, who's |
| 1:09.4 | now the third most valuable living artist behind Jeff Coons and Dave Hockney in the world. |
| 1:14.7 | The buyer of that $69 million dollar people goes by the pseudonym Metacovan. |
| 1:20.6 | You're listening to stories of our times from the times and the Sunday times. |
| 1:24.6 | I'm Manvinga Rana, today, the rise of crypto art, power to the people. |
| 1:35.8 | For Mike Winkelman, a 39-year-old graphic designer, it could have been any other night, |
| 1:41.6 | because his family gathered around the TV at home in South Carolina. |
| 1:46.8 | So we are in my living room and we're watching that closing of the auction, which closes |
| 1:53.9 | in an hour and 18 minutes. |
| 1:56.1 | It's already at like an absolutely ridiculous amount. |
| 1:59.0 | But this was the night their lives would change forever. |
| 2:03.2 | For Mike, it's no ordinary graphic designer. |
| 2:05.9 | For more than a decade, he's been creating a daily digital doodle under the name |
... |
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