Sotheby's to auction NFTs from 3AC collection

Sotheby’s has announced it will auction “an extraordinary digital art collection” in a GRAILS series set to begin in May and run throughout 2023.

According to the auction house, the iconic collection is of NFTs from Three Arrows Capital (3AC), a crypto hedge fund that filed for bankruptcy in July 2022 amid a brutal contagion across the industry. The series offers one of the most significant collections of digital artworks, Sotheby’s noted.

3AC liquidator Teneo announced in February that it planned to sell NFTs accumulated by the collapsed firm.

Auction to cover rarest of 3AC’s NFTs collection

The blue chip NFTs are by some of the most prominent individual creators, with a number being rare and virtually unseen. These will include digital artworks such as Ringers #879 (popular as “The Golden Goose”) by Dmitri Cherniak, Chromie Squiggle #1780 by Snowfro, and Fidenza #725 by Tyler Hobbs. Also on auction will be Larva Labs’ Zombie CryptoPunk #6649 and Kjetil Golid’s Cube Archetype #397.

Works from the collection will be offered globally across a variety of live and online auctions, as well as via private sale and additional sales channels, to showcase groups of works in different contexts and formats.
— Sotheby’s Metaverse (@Sothebysverse) April 19, 2023

Michael Bouhanna, Sotheby’s Head of Digital Art and NFTs commented:

“This expansive collection marks an important moment in the rise of generative art on the blockchain in 2021, and was guided by the 3AC ethos of acquiring some of the highest quality and rarest works available on the market. Since that defining moment, when digital art and NFTs became a genuine pop culture phenomenon, generative art has continued to gain attention from a growing audience, including from major international institutions.”

The 3AC collection offers collectors the opportunity to celebrate the major role pioneering generative artists played in shaping today’s growing appreciation of NFTs, Bouhanna added.

Per today’s press release, the auction house will release the NFTs in chapters, and in various sales formats, including private sales and auctions. The sales will take place globally, the first of which will be seven hand-picked NFTs that will be auctioned on 19^th May during the Marquee Sale Week at Sotheby’s New York.