Korea’s First NFT Art Auction Sold Mari Kim’s Artwork for KRW 600 Million

SEOUL, South Korea–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#ArtistMariKim–Mari Kim’s Missing and Found (2021) – 10 seconds animated artwork was sold for 288 Ethereums at Korea’s first NFT art auction launched by Pica Project on March 17.

The artwork, which had a starting price of KRW 50 million, was sold to a Korean bidder after fierce competition with a winning bid of 288 Ethereums, equivalent to KRW 600 million.

The auction was held on DeFine Art’s website, a decentralized NFT (Non-Fungible Token) platform developed by Piction Network, a creator-oriented decentralized digital content ecosystem, and jointly operated by Pica Project.

Using blockchain-based NFTs, the world-known artist Mari Kim transformed her art into a new digital form that is freely shareable online.

The bid price was more than eleven times higher than the initial bid and the highest selling price for a Mari Kim artwork, for example, four times higher than the price of her ‘Tree of Life (2019)’ sold at KRW 150 million at Gana Art Center, Seoul, in 2020.

The successful sale of a Korean artist’s NFT work for hundreds of millions of won has profound implications and is creating a huge sensation in both domestic and international art scenes.

NFTs, unlike other forms of cryptocurrencies, contain unique identification codes that indicate their authenticity and ownership, making each distinct from any other. Because of this, they have exerted an increasing influence on a global scale on trading in various fields such as digital artworks and digital items in online games. It seems they are having a mainstream moment. Two of the largest international auction houses, the Sotheby’s and Christie’s have both organized NFT auctions already, and this NFT auction held for the first time in Korea, too, is evaluated as a historic event in Korean art history.

For more information on Artist Mari Kim, please visit her website (http://www.marikim.net/_d1/page/aboutus.html) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/x.marikim.x/).

Contacts

Pica Project Co., Ltd.

Jacob Song

+82-2-543-6001

jacob.song@picaproject.co.kr