Sothebys to Hold Live Bids for Banksys Artworks in Ether …

Banksy's Trolley Hunters Courtesy of Sotheby's

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Live bids for Banksys artworks, Trolley Hunters and Love is In The Air (2006) atSothebys evening auction in New York on Nov. 18, will be announced in real-time in Ether cryptocurrency, marking the first time that a cryptocurrency will be used as the standard currency for bidding on physical artworks.

Trolley Hunters, depicting three prehistoric figures hunting a herd of empty supermarket trolleys, is a witty critique of consumerist societys obsession with processed and packaged food. Painted more than 15 years ago, it was unveiled in Banksys seminal exhibition Barely Legal in Los Angeles in 2006. It has a presale estimate between US$5 million and US$7 million at its debut auction.

Meanwhile, Love is in the Air depicts a subject at a civic unrest posed to hurl an object towards an unseen foe. Instead of a weapon, he was holding a bunch of flowers. The painting is expected to sell for between US$4 million and US$6 million.

While bidding increments for these two works, offered during Sothebys evening sale, titled The Now, will be fielded in Ether cryptocurrency, winning bidders can choose to pay in either fiat currency or in the three cryptocurrencies accepted by Sothebys: Ether, Bitcoin, and USD Coin, the auction house said.

Sothebys was also the first auction house to accept cryptocurrency as a payment option for a physical artwork. In May, when it offered a different work by Banksy also titled Love is in the Air (2005), the auction house said it would accept Bitcoin and Ethereum. The painting sold for US$12.9 million at its contemporary art evening auction, against a presale high estimate of US$5 million.

Choosing Banksys for new payment option and new bidding format is befitting, the auction house said, given the artists history as the preeminent disruptor of the art world paired with cryptocurrency as the leading disruptor in finance.

The live auction in New York on the evening of Nov. 18 will be livestreamed globally via Sothebys social media channels. The two Banksy artworks are on view virtually at Sothebys Discord channel and via Sothebys.com.

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Sothebys to Hold Live Bids for Banksys Artworks in Ether ...