Unheated 19.02-carat Ceylon sapphire ring adds flash to July 12 jewelry sale

An Art Deco-era diamond and platinum riviere necklace, a pair of Harry Winston pearl, diamond and platinum earrings, and an 18K white gold ring centered on an unheated 19.02-carat Ceylon sapphire should all find enthusiastic new owners at Jasper52’s Exclusive Estate & Designer Jewelry auction, which will take place on Tuesday, July 12 at 3 pm Eastern time. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.

The 225-lot sale is packed full of prizes created by brand name boutiques, designers and firms. Additional standouts include an Oscar Heyman gold, platinum, diamond and emerald tennis bracelet; a circa-1940s double dress clip in gold, diamonds and sapphires by Rene Boivin; a Chaumet gold link bracelet; a 1970s gold and diamond cocktail ring by Andrew Clunn that boasts a 16.11-carat star sapphire; and a pair of Fred Leighton clip-on platinum, diamond and turquoise earrings.

18K white gold ring showcasing an unheated 19.02-carat Ceylon sapphire, est. $182,000-$218,000

View the auction here.

NFTs: NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS OR NOT FOR THE TIMID?

An NFT image of a poster created by renowned artist Shepard Fairey, ‘Make Art, Not War,’ achieved $200 plus the buyer’s premium in March 2022. Image courtesy of ArtMeetsStreet x Mercer Auctions and LiveAuctioneers

Imagine that you “own” a specific star. Ostensibly, you own it because you have its specific coordinates stored in a star registry, and a colorful certificate you received after purchasing the star says so. The star may be visible to all, but only you can claim to own that specific star.

One day, you decide to sell the star’s coordinates to someone else who buys it as an investment. The buyer, however, cannot hold the star, feel it, frame it, put it on display or store it in a box any more than you could when you owned it. The only “property” that conveys is the coordinates. And, just as you had hoped the star would one day increase in value, so does its new “owner.”

‘Suitcase in Space 1,’ a 2022 digital NFT artwork by 82-year-old Spanish artist Cristobal Toral, realized €2,000 (about $2,050) plus the buyer’s premium in June 2022. Image courtesy of Ansorena and LiveAuctioneers.

If you understand any of that, welcome to the world of the non-fungible token, or NFT. As a newbie, there are some basic points to understand. 

First, the term “non-fungible” means that the item is one-of-a-kind and completely irreplaceable. Your car, for example, is non-fungible as it will have a different value from other cars, even if those cars were built in the same year and may appear identical. Anything that can be exchanged with the same value is “fungible.” A five-dollar bill is easily exchanged with another bill of the same type as both have the same value. Investopedia.com explains the concept this way: just as “… No. 2 yellow corn [is] fungible because it does not matter where the corn was grown; all corn designated as No. 2 yellow corn is worth the same amount.” 

Polish artist Yerka Jacek’s ‘Water World,’ offered in March 2022 as an NFT and a giclee print, together achieved 380,000 PLN (about $85,000) plus the buyer’s premium. Image courtesy of Agra Art Auction House and LiveAuctioneers.

Every line of computer code, by definition, is strictly unique, or non-fungible. When composed as an online token on a cryptocurrency blockchain – the online registry that serves as a certificate of authenticity of sorts – it becomes an NFT that cannot be changed or altered in any way. Once downloaded, the computer code defines the specialized image or plays only the unique sound that is bought and sold at online auctions.

NFTs can take many different forms. They exist as digital-game characters and trading cards, crypto art and also Internet memes, but NFTs are also being created as a kind of license for patents or online sports. So, according to theverge.com, “… anything digital such as drawings, music, [or even] your brain downloaded and turned into an AI [artificial intelligence] …” can become an NFT along with any abstraction, idea or thought. The first-ever tweet, composed and sent in March 2006 by Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey, sold as an NFT for nearly $3 million in March 2021.

‘The Great Chain of Being’ by Anna Mills is an artistic taxidermy sculpture of a savannah wildcat, an African grey hornbill and a marmoset monkey. It also exists as an NFT. The sculpture and the NFT sold together for $5,000 plus the buyer’s premium in April 2022. Image courtesy of Public Sale Auction House and LiveAuctioneers

There are positive and negative aspects to creating, buying and owning an NFT. One of the positive aspects can be illustrated with the star registry example above. The key difference between owning a star on a printed registry and an NFT made from computer code is that the creators of the star registry can’t collect royalties if the same star is resold, while the creator of the NFT does. Told another way, in the United States, contemporary artists are paid when their artwork is first sold, but not when it is resold.

 In 2021, Chris Torres, creator of the Nyan Cat Internet meme, said to businessinsider.com, “Most NFT platforms allow the artist to retain their copyright and trademarked work, which I feel is huge for an artist because it lets them keep their creative rights.” Also in 2021, Torres sold an NFT of Nyan Cat, a flying cat with a pop tart as its body, for nearly $600,000. NFTs allow creators of crypto art, as the Nyan Cat is called, to retain the copyright and continue to collect royalties every time the same NFT is resold to a new owner. More importantly, an artist can sell directly to a buyer without the need for a dealer or an agent who works on commission.

The NFT marketplace is relatively new. The first example, made by Kevin McCoy and Anil Dash and consisting of a short video clip of the sale itself, sold for $4 in May 2014. (Dash was the buyer.) By 2017, series of NFTs such as the CryptoPunks, CryptoKitties, Pepe trading cards and the Bored Ape Yacht Club were part of a $250 million marketplace and growing. An NFT by the artist known as Beeple (aka Mike Winkelmann) achieved $69 million at Christie’s in March 2021, generating headlines worldwide.

An individual NFT by the digital artist known as Beeple (Mike Winkelmann), titled ‘Bull Run Day #4951,’ achieved $40,000 plus the buyer’s premium in November 2021. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions and LiveAuctioneers

These types of digital artworks, as well as video and gaming characters are the most traded NFTs to date. According to a financial report by globenewswire.com, NFTs represent a $3 billion worldwide market that is expected to grow to $13.6 billion in 2027. The growth is expected to come from celebrity endorsements and the increasing use of game characters that can be bought and sold via game platforms. Crypto exchange platforms are also creating NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea, Rarible, Larva Labs, Cloudflare and Dapper Labs. All that is very positive for creators of NFTs, but what are the drawbacks of the NFT itself?

Anything can become an NFT, even this collage by Marc Karzen celebrating the 40th anniversary of ‘The David Letterman Show.’ The lot consisted of a signed book, a digital print and an NFT with the cryptocurrency wallet to access it. Collectively it earned $2,500 plus the buyer’s premium in May 2022. Image courtesy of Santa Monica Auctions and LiveAuctioneers.

As with anything considered valuable, only time and another buyer will determine its worth in the future. Remember the NFT of the very first tweet that sold for $3 million in March 2021? It was auctioned again in April 2022 and anticipated to sell for $50 million. But when no one bid more than $280, the NFT was withdrawn. Not even celebrity can help sell an NFT. In January 2022, Former First Lady Melania Trump created an NFT called Head of State Collection, featuring an image of her wearing a unique white outfit worn at a state visit with the president of France. It realized about $180,000, but public blockchain records later revealed Mrs. Trump herself purchased it after few interested buyers participated in the auction.

A fickle market aside, there are issues around the copyright of an image, video or game token represented by the NFT. Just creating an NFT doesn’t always mean ownership rights automatically transfer with it. Because of what are known as “personality rights,” buyers need to be sure the seller is also the owner of the image depicted in the NFT itself.

‘Bandera,’ a 2019 Bradley Settles landscape offered as an oil-on-board plus an NFT, sold for $850 plus the buyer’s premium in October 2021. Image courtesy of Vogt Auction Texas and LiveAuctioneers.

One of the most obvious downsides of an NFT is that if it is on the Internet, anyone can access it. You may have bought a video or graphic artwork as an NFT, but everyone else can still download it, too. It’s not unlike owning an original Picasso while everyone else owns a print. With an NFT, you, as the purchaser, may not own the copyright, which gives the original creator the ability to continue selling the same NFT many times over if they so desire. It wouldn’t make sense for the creator to do this, as it dilutes the scarcity of the NFT, but it can happen. Potential buyers should consider whether owning something that they can’t really control is in their best interest, bragging rights aside.

‘The Mistresses of Picasso,’ originally painted in gouache on paper in the 1930s, was auctioned as an NFT in May 2022 and attained $1,675 plus the buyer’s premium. Image courtesy of International Art Auction and LiveAuctioneers.

Also, it should be noted that anything created for a blockchain requires large amounts of energy to produce and maintain. According to Columbia (University) Climate School’s website, a University of Cambridge analysis estimated that bitcoin mining consumes 121.36 terawatt hours a year. This is more than all of Argentina consumes in a year, or more than the annual consumption of Google, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft combined. This results in pumping some 65 megatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, equivalent to the output of the nation of Greece. Generating Bitcoins, or any of the other 19,000 cryptocurrencies out there, makes a significant contribution to climate change. Minting an NFT is no different. 

The French newspaper ‘20 Minutes’ auctioned an offset printing plate for the front page of its January 13, 2020 supplement, along with an NFT of a complete six-page digital version of same, to benefit charity. It realized €3,000 (about $3,079) plus the buyer’s premium in October 2021. Image courtesy of Piasa and LiveAuctioneers.

NFTs are also closely linked to the cryptocurrency market, which is undergoing its own grim adventures. The Guardian newspaper reported on July 2, 2022 that the market for NFTs had hit a 12-month low of slightly more than $1 billion in June after peaking at $12.6 billion in January.

Nor are NFTs any less prone to theft than tangible artworks. Burglars come for them as well, as celebrity Seth Green found out. In May 2022, news broke that Green had lost four of his NFTs in a phishing scam, including a Bored Ape upon which he intended to base an animated TV show. The theft of the Bored Ape meant Green no longer controlled its likeness, placing the future of the show in doubt. The following month, Buzzfeed reported that Green regained his missing NFT by paying $260,000 to an entity known as 165 ETH, as confirmed by public blockchain records.

Any new opportunity to buy and sell will have its pros and cons. To get started in collecting NFTs requires a reasonable understanding of cryptocurrency, the blockchain, access to markets, online auctions, the attendant scams and various fees involved. You also need to school yourself on how to securitize the NFT you buy and on the marketability of any NFTs you create. And you need to understand how accessible the NFT would be in the future if the website, cloud platform or Tor network that hosts it is no longer online.

A work by Tel Aviv-based artist Shira Barzilay, aka Koketit, titled ‘Family Tree VideoArt’ and offered with an NFT, achieved $12,000 plus the buyer’s premium in May 2022. Image courtesy of Tiroche Auction House and LiveAuctioneers.

In the end, owning an NFT could conceivably help to preserve a small part of the Internet as a historical snapshot in time, making your collection a digital museum of sorts. Whatever the motivation, an NFT is just another way to own unique items that aren’t necessarily accessible. They may lead to future monetary and economic innovations that will benefit collectors and the world to come.