North Charleston resident Mike Winkelmann made history.
Better known as Beeple, on March 11, he set a record $ 69.3 million for a single piece of digital art through Christie’s art auction house.
This winning bid is the third highest price paid for a work by a living artist, of all time.
Although the image of the work, entitled “Every day: the first 5,000 days”, can be easily viewed and downloaded online, the auctioned digital file was a non-fungible token, or NFT. He lives on a blockchain, will only be sold by Beeple once and its authenticity and ownership can be verified.
This week, we delved into the details of selling this artist who lives in Lowcountry and what it says about the art world in 2021.
Reporter Kalyn Oyer shares what he learned while talking to Beeple himself before Christie’s auction. Gerald Dwyer, who teaches about blockchain and cryptocurrencies at Clemson University, analyzes how NFTs work, and Post and Courier art critic Maura Hogan examines some of the big questions this sale raises about property, visual art and the internet.
Listen now for more.
Understand that SC is a usekly podcast from The Post and Courier that uses reporting resources and the knowledge of our newsroom to help you better understand South Carolina. This episode was hosted and edited by Emily Williams.
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Catch up Emily Williams at 843-607-0894. Follow her on twitter @emilye_williams.