'This is more than an eye-catching stunt,' fans of Burnt Banksy say.
Another day, another crazy round of NFT auctions.
Earlier this year, a group of blockchain investors decided to buy a Banksy artwork called Morons for an eye-watering $95,000.
The piece shows a packed-out auction house, seemingly bidding over a framed piece emblazoned with the words: “I can’t believe you morons actually buy this shit.”
Confident that the artwork that had purchased is indeed the original, the blockchain enthusiasts subsequently arranged a “burning ceremony” — and livestreamed the piece’s destruction on YouTube. The Burnt Banksy group said that their plan was to transform the artwork into a non-fungible token instead.
Now, it seems that the group is having the last laugh. It’s now been sold for 228 ETH — and at the time of writing, that’s worth a jaw-dropping $393,000. All of this means that the band of crypto enthusiasts behind the stunt have pocketed a cool $300,000 in profit.
On Twitter, Burnt Banksy said they were making history. In recent days, they also retweeted praise from Michael J. Casey, who wrote:
“This is more than an eye-catching stunt. It's a brilliant iconoclastic act, offering rich meta commentary on culture, property and power.”
Will This Start a Craze?
The question now is whether other deep-pocketed crypto enthusiasts might be tempted to snap up some art, destroy it, and turn it into NFTs in the hope of turning a profit. It’s a high-risk move — but given the crazed trading activity that we’re seeing at the moment, anything is possible.
No matter what your opinion of Burnt Banksy, the stunt sends a powerful message: Although art may not exist in physical form, NFTs mean that it can have a life of its own digitally.
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