British auction house Christie’s Plans to Sell 9 Rare Cryptopunk NFTs Next Month

Decentralized Exchanges Jan 5, 2023 0 201 Add to Reading List

Next month in New York, the popular auction house Christie’s plans to auction a rare lot of Cryptopunk non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles. The sample of work sold will be approximately nine rare Punks, courtesy of the project’s creators Larva Labs.

Nine Rare Cryptopunks Going to Auction

On May 13, 2021, the British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie plans to auction nine one-of-a-kind NFTs from the Cryptopunk project. Christie’s said it will be the first of a kind occasion of “groundbreaking work offered at a traditional auction house.” The single lot of nine Punks stems from the NFTs creators Larva Labs.

“The Cryptopunks are the alpha and omega of the [cypto art] movement,” Noah Davis, a specialist in Post-War & Contemporary Art at Christie’s, New York said during the announcement. “This is a historic sale,” Davis added.

Several Worlds Into a Single Project- Cryptopunks Inspired the NFT Space

The Cryptopunks project came from the minds of Matt Hall and John Watkinson back in 2017. The New York-based firm they started, Larva Labs, has since created thousands of NFT characters. The team launched Cryptopunks on June 23, 2017, and they consist of pixelated 8-bit 24×24 pictures of Punks. There are approximately 10,000 Punks today and some have already sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The nine rare Cryptopunks that belonged to Larva Labs.

Christie’s auction house says it will be auctioning Punk # 2, 30, 58, 532, 602, 603, 635, and 757. Additionally, a “rare alien” collectible will be sold during the May 13 auction as well. Cryptopunk 635, is one of only nine alien Punks and the only one with a sub-1,000 series number. Christie’s says that Punks 532 and 602 are inspired by the ’70s London punk scene.

“Cryptopunks inspired a community of collectors and connoisseurs,” Christie’s announcement details. “For fans of collectibles, it’s clearly a version of trading cards or something similar. However, generative art fans see it as an interesting example in that category. We like that its perception is flexible and brings together several of these worlds into a single project,” the auction house announcement adds.