Asia anticipates a first sale of its kind as Christies’ auction BAYC and other top NFT collections this September. The sale, titled “No Time Like Present,” begins on September 17 at 2:00 PM HKT and ends September 28 at 2:00 p.m. HKT.
The full schedule is incomplete but will definitely include Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) as well as Larva Lab’s CryptoPunks and Meebits.
The event marks two firsts for NFT sales. It is the first NFT sale in Asia offered by an international auction house. Plus, the first time ever that BAYC and Meebits will be offered outside an NFT-trading platform.
As a result of so many firsts, Christies are confident the sale will “set another milestone in the history of Crypto Art.”
The Rise of BAYC Collectibles
The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs started on the Ethereum blockchain this year and priced at just 0.08ETH each. This remarkably fair pricing consequently resulted in a stampede with all 10,000 NFTs selling out in under 12 hours.
Each unique NFT pictures an ape in the same vein as designs by Jamie Hewlett’s artwork for 1990’s virtual band, the Gorillaz.
This lead to the NFTs becoming known for their quirky cartoonish humour and expressive faces.
The collectability of the BAYC NFTs soon pushed valuations on the secondary market considerably north of the initial asking price.
After that, influencers and creatives soon clamoured for their own Ape, changing their Twitter avatars to match their purchase. Such demand consequently drove prices even higher.
The NFTs also have utility due to the tokens acting as a membership to the Yacht Club.
One benefit of membership is in using the NFT in order to gain access to the all-important bathroom. Inside, like most swamp club loos, punters will find a graffiti wall. However, this particular wall is a collaborative work of art by BAYC members.
Christies Auction House NFT Bonanza
The Wall Street Journal recently covered Christies total $3.5 billion of art sales in the first half of 2021 and emphasised “…cryptocurrency collectors are splurging on blue-chip art.”
Indeed, Christies set a new record with another crypto first earlier this year. Namely, selling the first NFT based purely on a digital artwork ever offered by a major auction house for US$69,346,250.
That, of course, was the heavily publicised work by Beeple – who is more formally known as Mike Winkelmann – Everydays: The First 5000 days.
That sale was also groundbreaking for another reason. That is to say Christie’s became the first international auction house to accept cryptocurrency in payment for a single lot.
Christies accounts appear to be in a strong position especially with NFTs in the vanguard. Despite the imposed lockdowns disrupting much of the auction calendar, Chief Executive Guillaume Cerutti said “We’re seeing a very strong rebound.” The demand has resulted in 87% of all Christies lots coming to auction finding a buyer during the first six months of the year.
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