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Collectors of digital art will now be able to acquire secondary NFTs from Sotheby’s. The prestigious auction house announced the launch of a new on-chain marketplace.
The premium auction house has designed a completely on-chain sales mechanism, which allows customers to acquire handpicked non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum and Polygon networks.
The auction house aims to differentiate itself from the other pre-existing NFT markets that currently allow peer-to-peer transactions of digital artworks by providing a “rotating, curated selection of leading artists handpicked by Sotheby’s specialists.”
A statement made by Sotheby’s on Twitter on May 1 said that the site would begin with works from 13 notable digital artists. These artists include the artist known only by the alias XCOPY and Claire Silver, Tyler Hobbs, and Hackatao.
What’s in it for consumers
All non-fungible token sales are conducted using smart contracts on Sotheby’s Metaverse platform. These contracts allow digital art enthusiasts to pay for the artwork and artifacts they purchase with either ether or polygon.
Sotheby’s also said it would fulfill artist royalties using smart contracts on the secondary sales platform. This means that artists would be paid automatically according to the royalty rate they pick.
The next evolution of #SothebysMetaverse is here! The most trusted and dynamic destination to collect, buy and sell remarkable digital works.
— Sotheby's Metaverse (@Sothebysverse) May 1, 2023
Explore: https://t.co/hZvYIkO3xx pic.twitter.com/dCkaCKlXVm
Sotheby’s history with NFTs
In April 2021, the 279-year-old British-American clearing house debuted on the NFT scene during the release of Pak, a digital artist. Since then, the gallery has been responsible for several sales of digital art that broke previous records.
Another unique piece of CryptoPunk known as “Covid Alien” was auctioned by Sotheby’s on June 11, 2021, for an astounding price of 11.8 million dollars.
On September 10, only three months later, Sotheby’s arranged action of 101 Bored Ape NFTs cleared $24 million.
In November of 2021, Sotheby’s held the giant non-fungible token (NFT) charity auction in the event’s history. The auction consisted of selling 140 rare non-fungible tokens to generate revenue for the charitable healthcare group Sostento.