In Brief:
- Christie’s to auction 31 Curio cards on 1st Oct with only Ethereum (ETH).
- This auction will be first part of ‘POST-WAR TO PRESENT” auction.
- The estimated value of these 31 Curio Card NFTs would be between 250 ETH to 350 ETH.
The 254-year-old auction house, Christie’s has listed out a set of 31 Curio cards with other famous non-fungible tokens (NFTs) projects, which are going to be held on Oct 1. The interesting fact of this auction is the auction house will receive payment through Ethereum. This auction will be the first slot of the “Post-war to Present” of NFTs.
In March, Christie’s auction house had sold a Beeple NFT for $69 million. Moreover, Christie’s Asia branch is taking a bid for rare Cryptopunks and Bored Ape NFTs. In the last few months, NFTs have been famous among buyers.
The Curio Cards was launched in 2017 and is seen as the first Crypto art collectibles on the Ethereum blockchain. The set contains different images which include mundane objects (#1 Apples) to reimagined corporate logos (#15 DigitalCash) to intricate black-and-white geometric drawings (#26 Education).
“A true full set of Curio Cards is one of the few holy grails as far as art projects on Ethereum go,” said Noah Davis, head of digital art at Christie’s. “It’s the first of its kind, predating Punks, even.”
The estimated value of these 31 Curio Card NFTs would be between 250 ETH to 350 ETH. The current price of Ethereum (ETH) is around $3,523.71. So the estimated value of this fetch would be between $870,000 and $1.3 million.
Earlier Curio Cards co-founder had mentioned in a statement that there were 111 cards but they lost five cards. So, now there is only a set of 106.
“Cards 17,18 and 19 were all initially misprinted, but there was a mistake that made 18 and 19 unsellable,” explained Uhrig. “Back in 2017, nobody cared that you had test code on Ethereum. We just re-deployed all three after fixing [the error]. People eventually found [card #17b] because it lives on the blockchain. The market has definitely spoken, people think of it as an essential in a full set.”
The Oct. 1 auction also marks the first time Christie’s live bidding will be denominated in cryptocurrency instead of the usual local currency. These bids will be placed only in ETH.
“I’ve been bidding in auctions on behalf of clients for almost a decade,” said Davis, the Christie’s digital art lead. “I’ve placed bids in USD, GBP, and EUR – always fiat. To think I’m going to hear the auctioneer calling out my bids in ETH, that’s just incredible. It doesn’t happen.”
This auction will become part of Christie’s broader “POST-WAR TO PRESENT” live auction in New York, which will also come with traditional artists and pieces.
