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Damien Hirst, reportedly the wealthiest living artist in the United Kingdom, will burn thousands of his paintings next month as part of a non-fungible token (NFT) project called The Currency.
Damien Hirst To Set His Paintings On Fire For NFT Project
At the beginning of September, the destruction of the artworks will take place during an exhibition, also titled "The Currency," at Newport Street Gallery in London. A month later, the gallery will stage a closing event to burn the remaining artworks, with Hirst in attendance.
"Artworks will be burnt at a specified time each day during the run of the show. These timings will be publicized in advance," read a statement from the artist.
https://twitter.com/hirst_official/status/1552303406882111494 Hirst first made the physical artworks of 10,000 oil paintings depicting unique dots in 2016 and linked them to NFTs in 2021. Buyers of the NFTs worth $2,000 were given the option to keep the token or trade it for the physical painting. The original artwork will now be burnt for those who chose to keep the NFT version. With a deadline set on July 27, 4,851 wanted their paintings to be burned for digital edition NFTs, while 5,149 collectors opted to trade their NFTs for physical versions, according to Heni, an art market-focused tech company. The works are due to be destroyed daily during the run of the show, culminating in a closing event in October wherein the remaining paintings will be burned down.
"I still don’t know what I’m doing and I have no idea what the future holds, whether the NFTs or physicals are going to be more valuable or less. But that is art! the fun, part of the journey and maybe the point of the whole project. Even after one year, I feel the journey is just beginning," Damien Hirst wrote in a statement.