Damien Hirst just burned 1000 of his paintings and will soon burn thousands more - NPR

A coating of multicolored dots by creator Damien Hirst burns astatine the Newport Street Gallery successful London connected Tuesday arsenic portion of his task "The Currency." For it, helium released a postulation of 10,000 NFTs, each 1 corresponding to a carnal artwork. Buyers could either support the non-fungible token, successful which lawsuit the coating would beryllium burned, oregon support the painting, successful which lawsuit they would suffer the NFT. Isabel Infantes/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Isabel Infantes/AFP via Getty Images

A coating of multicolored dots by creator Damien Hirst burns astatine the Newport Street Gallery successful London connected Tuesday arsenic portion of his task "The Currency." For it, helium released a postulation of 10,000 NFTs, each 1 corresponding to a carnal artwork. Buyers could either support the non-fungible token, successful which lawsuit the coating would beryllium burned, oregon support the painting, successful which lawsuit they would suffer the NFT.

Isabel Infantes/AFP via Getty Images

British creator Damien Hirst is among the galore art-world giants who person set fire to their work, having burned 1,000 of his artworks Tuesday. He streamed the lawsuit connected Instagram and is acceptable to pain thousands much works of art.

It's portion of his task "The Currency." It consists of a postulation of 10,000 NFTs. Each non-fungible token corresponds to a carnal coating featuring his signature multicolored dots, made from enamel overgarment connected handmade paper. The pieces were initially disposable for $2,000, which is affordable compared with what Hirst's enactment has been known to spell for.

"A batch of radical deliberation I'm burning millions of dollars of creation but I'm not, I'm completing the translation of these carnal artworks into nfts by burning the carnal versions," Hirst wrote successful an Instagram caption. "the worth of creation integer oregon carnal which is hard to specify astatine the champion of times volition not beryllium mislaid it volition beryllium transferred to the nft arsenic soon arsenic they are burnt."

A twelvemonth aft buying a portion from "The Currency," collectors had to marque a choice. They could either instrumentality the painting, meaning they would suffer the NFT, oregon clasp onto the NFT, meaning the coating would beryllium burned.

"'The Currency' pitted Hirst's foray into the caller satellite of integer creation against his old-school practice, asking the creation marketplace to determine which was much valuable," wrote Artnet News' Caroline Goldstein.

The buyers were astir evenly divided successful their decisions, with 5,149 opting to commercialized their NFT for the archetypal coating and 4,851 choosing the NFT. The pieces are being shown astatine the Newport Street Gallery successful London and volition beryllium burned during the creation just Frieze London, which runs from Oct. 12 done 16.

An NFT is simply a integer identifier that confirms the authenticity and ownership of a tangible oregon integer object. It acts arsenic a benignant of receipt, and its uniqueness makes it valuable.

In the modern art market, creation is traded similar an plus and seen arsenic a fiscal instrument, filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn told NPR successful 2018. NFTs are a caller benignant of plus that tin beryllium commodified. The vigor it takes to make them has besides made them notoriously atrocious for the environment.

Many comments connected Hirst's Instagram station astir the burning were critical. "Either mode it's each astir the money," wrote 1 user. "Interesting strategy of maxing the c footprint for this collection," wrote another.