The famous artist becomes art himself
According to DappRadar data, a never-before-seen image of Andy Warhol has sold for almost $100k on the Rarible NFT marketplace. The sale places Rarible as the second overall NFT marketplace with volume up over 28% to $919k in the last 24-hours. Interestingly, looking at the NFT on Opensea reveals that NFT influencer and creator Beeple made a laughable 0.001 ETH bid ($1.99) on the photo some time ago.
Andy Warhol was an American artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explored the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished by the 1960s. Some of his best-known works include the silkscreen paintings Campbell’s Soup Cans, and the multimedia events known as the Exploding Plastic Inevitable.
The creator of the NFT is career photo-journalist Mark Greenberg who spent a lifetime photographing the world then went on to become a two-time best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize-nominated photographer.
Greenberg spent a day with pop art icon Andy Warhol at Warhol’s Factory Studio in Manhattan in 1985 where he captured the image now titled ‘PORTRAIT In 1985’. Greenberg states in the image description that on a whim, he thought it might be fun to shoot Warhol holding a sign that stated the obvious. To his delight, Warhol agreed. As Greenberg packed up to leave he told Warhol it was an honor and a pleasure to work with him. Warhol quietly replied, “Thank you, and I hope you have fun with those images…” Greenberg continues.
The NFT features unlockable content with the purchase and unlocks the IPFS CID to the full-res 234MB file scanned from the original Kodachrome 64 slide.
Who bought it?
Using the DappRadar portfolio tracker we can look at the wallet holdings of both the seller and buyer. First, the new owner of the NFT.
Looking at the wallet holdings of the new owner we see 28 owned NFTs with a total value of over $152,000, the most expensive being their recently purchased Andy Warhol piece which accounts for almost 60% of their NFT portfolio. Further investigation shows the new owner also holds 7 NBA superstar Zion Williamson NFTs with a value over $15,000.
But, by far the most interesting NFT in the wallet has to be the curious child-like drawing of the famous Brooklyn Bridge purchased for over £35,000, which was drawn by British comedian John Cleese
Finally, the wallet contains a simple copy of the original Marilyn Monroe painting by Warhol ‘The Marilyn Diptych’ indicating this person is a Warhol fan, but more importantly an NFT art collector.
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