Jeff Koons will send 125 sculptures to the moon with Elon Musk’s SpaceX after he sells them as NFTs
American pop artist Jeff Koons will send 125 miniature sculptures to the moon with the help of multi-billionaire Elon Musk‘s SpaceX company.
The ‘Moon Phases’ statues will be sold as NFTs and buyers will receive a photo of their lunar location and a sculpture with a gemstone marking their extra-terrestrial counterpart’s place on the moon.
They are up for sale at the Art Basel fair in Switzerland, a contemporary art event where non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are all the rage this year.
NFTs are digital assets which work like certificates of ownership, they are built using the blockchain and each have a unique digital signature.
The sculptures will be installed 384,400 kilometres (238,855 miles) apart from their owners.
‘We’re also seeing it for the first time,’ said Pace gallery director Marc Glimcher as he unveiled a moon-shaped statue about the size of a beach ball at his stand in Basel.
Jeff Koons’ ‘Moon phases’ statues (pictured) will be sold as NFTs and then installed on the moon with the help of a SpaceX rocket
A total of 125 miniature versions of the sculpture will be sold and then blasted 384,400 kilometres away to the moon’s surface
Buyers of the NFTs will be able to take home a smaller version of the sculpture with a gemstone marking its location on the moon
One of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket will transport the 125 sculptures and put them on the surface of the moon
Artist Jeff Koons is famous for his works such as ‘Rabbit’ (pictured) which sold for $91.1 million and ‘Balloon dog’
Jeff Koons is well-known for his shiny stainless steel sculpture inspired by a child’s inflatable toy, called Rabbit (1986), that sold for $91.1million in 2019.
The second richest artist in the world still holds the record for most expensive price paid at auction for a work by a living artist.
‘Moon Phases’ is the first NFT project by the polarizing artist, which he said is ‘rooted in humanistic and philosophical thought’.
He said: ‘I’ve always enjoyed the idea of creating a global art, art that really is about every human being’s aspiration to have a more fulfilling life.
‘To be able to touch on meaning, what it means to be a human being.’
‘American Kitchen and Chinese Cockroaches’ (2019) by Chineses artist Huang Yong Ping
The artwork ‘Spider’ by French-American artist Louise Bourgeois is on display at the international art show Art Basel and sold for $40 million
Cameroonian artist Barthelemy Togo poses by his artwork ‘Bilongue’ during a preview day of Art Basel
A number of virtual art pieces, NFTs, have been up for sale at the art fair in Switzerland
A visitor walks past Leonardo Drews artwork ‘number 341’
The fair, which runs from June 16-19, also features a host of non-digital works — from an installation by Franco-Chinese artist Huang Yong Ping depicting a kitchen strewn with giant cockroaches, to a series of portraits carved in wood by Franco-Cameroonian artist Barthelemy Toguo.
A spider sculpture by the French-American sculptor Louise Bourgeois fetched $40 million.
Along with sales of yachts, luxury cars, watches, and jewellery, the art market recovered strongly in 2021 after the shock of the pandemic in 2020.
The stock market rebounded sharply last year, swelling the coffers of the ultra-rich — and inflation is giving wealthy collectors yet another reason to splash out on a multi-million-dollar painting.
Pace is one of the few major galleries to have ventured into the field of NFTs. According to Clare McAndrew, author of an art market report for Art Basel, only six percent of galleries sold NFTs in 2021.
The NFT market grew dramatically from 2020–2021, the trading of NFTs in 2021 increased to more than $17 billion, up by 21,000% over 2020’s total of $82 million.
Since peaking in August 2021, NFTs have plummeted. While art-related NFT sales volumes soared to $945 million in August, they fell to $366 million in January and then to $101 million in May, according to McAndrew’s records.
Cryptocurrencies, which are closely tied with NFTs, have been plummeting in value in recent months.
The popular Bitcoin has lost around 28% since Friday, more than half of its value this year, and is down 70% from a record high in November.
Overall the blockchain-based currency is down about 59% in 2022, while rival cryptocurrency Ethereum-backed ether is down 73%.
These ups and downs in crypto and NFTs don’t faze the owner of the Pace gallery though, who believes that NFTs represent a ‘new methodology for distributing digital art’.
