Gucci NFT Sells For Only $25K After Much-Hyped Auction

An update on the Gucci NFT sale mentioned a few days ago here at NFT Evening. Despite the Gucci name and decent press coverage, the auction at Christie’s ended with a respectable $25,000 final price. While that is a huge number for the average up-and-coming digital artist, it’s a significant let-down for Gucci.

Proceeds from the NFT are being donated to UNICEF USA to support COVAX, fighting coronavirus worldwide. Gucci also partnered with Offsetra to balance out the environmental cost of minting the NFT. Auction house Christie’s still seemed upbeat about crypto art as a whole, telling ArtNet it was “empowering creative people everywhere.”

Lessons from the Gucci NFT experience

It’s easy to view the Gucci auction as a sign that the NFT bubble has burst. But there are many issues at play with a project such as this. The fashion world may not overlap with the crypto-buying world in a big enough way to have existing NFT-friendly buyers at the ready. And despite being auctioned by Christie’s, fashion industry buyers might not have been comfortable with the technology at play. Gucci’s NFT sale might have been a victim of being a little too cutting edge.

This highlights how simply packaging an idea as an NFT doesn’t guarantee you success — or failure. The video, “Aria”, was well-produced and had an experimental feel to it, much like the most popular digital art pieces. But despite the diversity of the crypto art world, there may be some styles that don’t do as well as others.

Whether companies like Gucci will try more NFTs in the future is uncertain. What is certain is that this was a very respectable first step for the storied fashion house. Here’s hoping there are more to follow.