Ben Lewis, an author and art historian, has created a real non-fungible token (NFT) of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi.
The painting depicts Christ with his right hand raised in blessing as in the original painting and his other had clutching a fistful of dollars. The NFT will be offered on the Opensea platform and auctioned over the Easter weekend (UK). The painting is currently bidding .23 Ethereum ($443). Half of any profits Lewis makes will be shared with the Hendry family.
This is the first NFT adventure for Lewis, who explains that he’s not as interested in the medium as he is in the feverish market that formed, seemingly overnight, around it. “What interests me is the question: Is it a bubble or is it froth underneath something really serious?” he says. “I don’t know. It’s fascinating.”
NFT platforms offer artists a percentage of all future sales but resale fees are only paid if the work is resold “on-chain” by the platform that minted the NFT. An industry insider says: “The platforms have the option of honouring the resale-royalty percentage set forth in the original contract, but it is not automated unless resold on the original platform. That is true across the industry as each smart contract is specific to the marketplace that created it.”