On May 18, the auction house Phillips will be hosting an evening sale featuring the work of the American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Phillips’ Evening Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art will auction Basquiat’s “Untitled, 1982” piece worth an estimated $70 million. Phillips announced that the auction will accept bitcoin or ethereum for the artwork.

Phillips to Take Bitcoin and Ethereum to Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Art Auction

The renowned art collector Yusaku Maezawa and the 225-year-old auction house Phillips will be hosting an art auction on May 18, featuring the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat. This American artist has become a popular figure in the neoexpressionist movement. He is often compared to Pablo Picasso, the Spanish painter who founded the Cubist art movement.

The art featured at the Evening Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art will be Basquiat’s sixteen-foot wide “Untitled, 1982” painting. The “Untitled, 1982” standing at eight feet tall and over 16 feet wide, has an estimated value of around $70 million, according to the auction house Phillips.

” This striking horizontal layout is likely to be a nod towards Pablo Picasso’s masterpiece ‘Guernica’,” the Phillips announcement notes. Yusaku Maezawa, the consignor of Untitled, said that he hoped that Untitled would continue its amazing journey and bring smiles to many people around the globe.

The announcement also reveals that the auction house will allow buyers to buy Basquiat artwork using cryptocurrencies. The firm announced that Phillips was pleased to announce that the auction house would accept cryptocurrency in ethereum and bitcoin.

Phillips Plays with Crypto Acceptance at Banksy Auction. Hosts Valentine’s Day FFT Sale

Phillips isn’t the first person to experiment with crypto solutions or non-fungible token technology (NFT). Last year, Phillips revealed it was auctioning a world-famous piece of artwork called the “Laugh Now Panel” created by the anonymous street artist Banksy.

This auction of Banksy’s “Laugh Now Panel”, which was the first to sell artwork for cryptocurrency payments, was held in a physical art auction. The Phillips Banksy auction announcement was made the same week that Sotheby’s announced it would use Coinbase to sell Banksy’s image “Love is in the Air”.

Phillips recently hosted a Valentine’s Day 2022 “My Kawaii Valentine Online Auction,” which introduced the first auction data-generative NFT created by a virtual human. “Among the NFTs in the sale is Drowning in Love, the world’s first NFT created by the virtual artist, Monoc, using real-time auction data,” Phillips explained on February 8.

Phillips announced that the Basquiat art would be on an international tour, including to London, Los Angeles and Taipei, in preparation for the Basquiat auction. Following the exhibits, the artwork will be auctioned at Phillips’ New York headquarters at 432 Park Avenue.

What do you think about Phillips accepting bitcoin and ethereum for the $70 million Basquiat artwork being sold at the auction in May? Please comment below to let us know your thoughts on this topic.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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