Digital artwork auctions for $69 million amid online craze

<p>LONDON &mdash; Christie’s says it has auctioned off a digital collage by an artist named Beeple for nearly $70 million, in an unprecedented sale of a digital artwork that fetched more money than physical works by many better known artists.</p>
<p>The piece, titled “Everydays: The First 5,000 Days," sold for $69.4 million, “positioning him among the top three most valuable living artists," Christie’s said via Twitter on Thursday.</p>
<p>Christie’s said it also marks the first time a major auction house has offered a digital-only artwork with a non-fungible token as a guarantee of its authenticity as well as the first time cryptocurrency has been used to pay for an artwork at auction. </p>
<p>Beeple, whose real name is Mike Winkelmann, responded to the sale result with an expletive on Twitter. </p>
<p>Non-fungible tokens, known as NFTs, are electronic identifiers confirming a digital collectible is real, and have swept the online collecting world recently. They prove that the item is one of a kind, allowing buyers to claim ownership.</p>