This auction house has sold a number of virtual artworks this year at high prices.

The auction house Sotheby’s stated that an irreplaceable token for a digital artwork called “CryptoPunk” was sold for $11.8 million on Thursday.

CryptoPunks is a set of 10,000-pixel artistic characters produced by Larva Labs in 2017. “CryptoPunk #7523” auctioned by Sotheby’s is a popular alien species with blue-green skin and medical masks.

The work takes the form of NFT-which means that it is authenticated through the blockchain to prove its originality and ownership. NFT is sent to the buyer’s cryptocurrency wallet; no physical artwork changes hands.

“CryptoPunk #7523” was sold as part of Sotheby’s online auction “Natively Digital: A Curated NFT Sale” for US$11,754,000, and the works of 27 digital artists were sold for US$17.1 million.

Sotheby’s said it was bought by Israeli entrepreneur Shalom Meckenzie, who is the largest shareholder of DraftKings, a digital sports company.

Moments ago in our #London saleroom, an extremely rare “Alien” CryptoPunk #7523 from the collection of @sillytuna sold for $11.8M as part of our #NativelyDigital NFT auction – setting a new world auction record for a single CryptoPunk. pic.twitter.com/PDVUSttI3o

— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) June 10, 2021

Sotheby’s contemporary art expert Michael Bouhanna (Michael Bouhanna) said that this auction shows that the demand for NFT continues to be strong.

“We are very happy to continue to explore new and interesting ways to showcase these cutting-edge works.”

Anyone can view the artwork represented by the NFT, but only the buyer has the official identity of the owner.

Sotheby’s in Metaverse

Although this auction is an online auction, these works have appeared on screen in Sotheby’s exhibitions in New York, London and Hong Kong.

Sotheby’s also opened its first virtual gallery: a replica of the real-world building on New Bond Street in London in the online virtual world Decentraland.

Decentraland is a blockchain-based virtual world where users can walk around with friends, visit buildings, participate in events, and show off their NFT art collection.

“For those who say,’Yes, but you can’t hang them on the wall,’ this is where virtual social worlds like Decentraland come in,” said Dave Carr, a spokesperson for the Decentraland Foundation.

“The virtual world is the natural home of digital art NFT.”

NFT is very popular in February and March. An NFT artwork was auctioned at Christie’s for US$69.3 million. This is the first auction of a large art auction house, without physical form.

Sotheby’s first NFT auction was held in April, and the digital work of the artist named “Pak” sold for $16.8 million.

Quantum, created by Kevin McCoy, is a simple geometric animation that was also sold for $1.47 million at the auction on Thursday. Sotheby’s stated that this is the first NFT in history and was “casted” in 2014. A piece of Pak’s work was also sold for $528,200.