The world’s first non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for the ballet were recently sold by Bonhams, a privately owned worldwide auction house, and were performed by world-famous ballerina Natalia Osipova, principal dancer at The Royal Ballet in London.
Bonhams has sold works by digital artists, including a world-record-breaking Cristiano Ronaldo NFT trading card, in big-name auctions for the NFT field. In recent years, NFTs have seen a renaissance, with collectors and speculators both spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a variety of NFT-based artwork, with some spending more than $200 million. In some ways, the tipping point came when digital artist Mike Winkelmann, aka Beeple, sold an NFT piece at Christie’s for a record-breaking $69 million, the third-highest price ever paid by a living artist.
NFTs are digital computer files that have a provenance that serves as proof of authenticity. They reside on a blockchain, which is a secure digital public ledger, similar to cryptocurrencies.
According to Bonham’s executives, the sale of the NFTs will be the first time that collectors and ballet fans would be able to buy a piece of performance art, with the NFT format working as a proprietary stamp attached to the digital works.