Sotheby's will accept cryptocurrency as payment for Banksy's Love is in the Air, which will be auctioned at a contemporary art event on May 12. Image courtesy of Sotheby's
Sotheby's will accept cryptocurrency as payment for Banksy's Love is in the Air, which will be auctioned at a contemporary art event on May 12. Image courtesy of Sotheby's
Sotheby's will accept cryptocurrency as payment for Banksy's Love is in the Air, which will be auctioned at a contemporary art event on May 12. Image courtesy of Sotheby's
Sotheby's will accept cryptocurrency as payment for Banksy's Love is in the Air, which will be auctioned at a contemporary art event on May 12. Image courtesy of Sotheby's

Sotheby's to accept cryptocurrency as payment in Banksy auction


Michael Fahy
  • English
  • Arabic

Auction house Sotheby’s is collaborating with Coinbase to accept cryptocurrencies as a payment method for a physical work of art.

The company said it will accept Bitcoin and Ether as payment when it auctions the Banksy painting, Love Is In The Air, later this month.

"This is the first time that cryptocurrency will be accepted as payment for physical artwork and we are really excited to make this happen. It's something we've been thinking about for quite some time," Sotheby's chief executive Charles Stewart told CNBC's Squawk Box.

"Banksy has been, as you might be well aware, a very popular artist at auction and there is a lot of interest in his work paying with physical money as well. But what better combination to introduce crypto than with an iconic Banksy painting?"

Sotheby's said the decision to accept cryptocurrency for physical payment followed on from the recent success of 'The Fungible' Collection – the sale of non-fungible tokens bestowing ownership of digital artworks from designer Pak, which saw bids from more than 3,000 collectors, most of whom were first-time buyers with the auction house.

Its decision to accept cryptocurrency via Coinbase Commerce, a method for businesses to handle crypto payments, "marks an important next step", the auction house said in a statement.

The Banksy painting has an estimate of $3 million-$5m for the auction, which is due to take place next Wednesday, May 12. Bidders can also pay in cash, Mr Stewart said.

It will be up to the owner of the painting whether or not to keep the cryptocurrency or immediately convert it to US dollars, he added.

"I definitely think we will expand the audience by doing this and it's something that we'll explore going forward, although of course we're very curious to see how this first step in that direction goes," Mr Stewart said.

Bitcoin was trading 3.04 per cent lower at $55,975 on the Coinbase exchange at 5.30pm UAE time on Tuesday. Ether was up 13 per cent at $3,515.39.

“Coinbase is proud to provide Sotheby’s with a sophisticated payment solution, backed by our deep liquidity, and expertise with trading and hedging cryptocurrencies," Sanchan Saxena, Coinbase’s vice president of product and ecosystem, said.

"This is an example of an enterprise that is evolving with their client base to cater to crypto-forward consumers.”

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Banksy's art work

RESULTS

Bantamweight: Victor Nunes (BRA) beat Azizbek Satibaldiev (KYG). Round 1 KO

Featherweight: Izzeddin Farhan (JOR) beat Ozodbek Azimov (UZB). Round 1 rear naked choke

Middleweight: Zaakir Badat (RSA) beat Ercin Sirin (TUR). Round 1 triangle choke

Featherweight: Ali Alqaisi (JOR) beat Furkatbek Yokubov (UZB). Round 1 TKO

Featherweight: Abu Muslim Alikhanov (RUS) beat Atabek Abdimitalipov (KYG). Unanimous decision

Catchweight 74kg: Mirafzal Akhtamov (UZB) beat Marcos Costa (BRA). Split decision

Welterweight: Andre Fialho (POR) beat Sang Hoon-yu (KOR). Round 1 TKO

Lightweight: John Mitchell (IRE) beat Arbi Emiev (RUS). Round 2 RSC (deep cuts)

Middleweight: Gianni Melillo (ITA) beat Mohammed Karaki (LEB)

Welterweight: Handesson Ferreira (BRA) beat Amiran Gogoladze (GEO). Unanimous decision

Flyweight (Female): Carolina Jimenez (VEN) beat Lucrezia Ria (ITA), Round 1 rear naked choke

Welterweight: Daniel Skibinski (POL) beat Acoidan Duque (ESP). Round 3 TKO

Lightweight: Martun Mezhlumyan (ARM) beat Attila Korkmaz (TUR). Unanimous decision

Bantamweight: Ray Borg (USA) beat Jesse Arnett (CAN). Unanimous decision

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Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Ain Dubai in numbers

126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure

1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch

16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.

9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.

5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place

192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.