Christie’s sale of a new, physical work by digital artist Beeple is the latest sign of a merger between traditional and digital art that started with the artist’s sale of a $69 million NFT this spring
craze for nonfungible tokens
by selling one of his digital collages at Christie’s for $69 million this spring. Now Beeple has something even more surprising for sale—a real-life sculpture. Christie’s said it plans on Nov. 9 to auction the first physical work of art by Beeple, whose real name is Mike Winkelmann, for an estimated $15 million. The sculpture, called “HUMAN ONE,” is a 7-foot-tall, white mahogany column covered in LED screens that depicts a life-size astronaut dressed in a mirrored helmet and silvery suit. The monolith-like pillar is designed to slowly rotate so that viewers standing before it will see the figure appear to stroll through sci-fi landscapes.