Banksy artworks bought with Ethereum in first for Sotheby’s

Two Banksy paintings, sold through Sotheby’s, have been bought with Ethereum.

The pieces, “Trolley Hunters” and “Love Is In The Air”, sold for 1,696 ETH ($6,698,400) and 1,397 ETH ($8,077,200).

Sotheby’s has been accepting crypto payments since May 2021, but this was the first time Ether had been used as payment at the British-American auction house.

While contemporary artists like Banksy remain in demand in auction houses like Sotheby’s and Christie’s, there has been a clear push for NFTs as demonstrated by the launch of Sotheby’s ‘Metaverse’ platform which the auction house describes as “an immersive destination for collectors of digital art, offering a curated selection of NFTs”.

The virtual gallery held its first sale in October that included 53 works of art from 19 NFT collectors.

The continuing expansion and success of the cryptocurrency industry and the NFT space make it a lucrative partnership for auction houses.

NFT artist Beeple sold his latest piece called ‘Human One’, for an extraordinary $29m at Christie’s in a watershed moment for the NFT art market.