Real money is already being spent on virtual purchases such as avatar outfits in video game Fortnite. Still, applying high monetary value to digital art that can never be held in the buyer's hand might look like a wilful act of make-believe or extreme lockdown boredom.
The price of the Beeple photo collage will shock traditionalists. You could buy a lot of second-tier old masters for that money.
But art buyers have always prized "provenance" — proofs of an ownership chain that show the artwork is authentic. NFTs take that idea into the digital sphere.
As a new way to validate artistic provenance they are useful. Putting a value on digital works of art is no more a conceptual leap than accepting an expensive painting has been produced in an art factory, ancient or modern. Damien Hirst spots painted by assistants rather than the artist can sell for millions of dollars. So why not a jpeg?
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