Sotheby’s sells mother lode of 37 other NFTs from bankrupt hedge fund Three Arrows Capital’s collection

In an event Sotheby’s bills as the biggest digital art sale ever, the auction house will sell 37 NFTs that once belonged to Capital of the Three Arrowsthe Singapore-based crypto hedge fund that went bankrupt in July 2022.

The auction will take place in New York on June 15 and Sotheby’s estimates that sales will reach over $5 million.

Back in April When Teneo, the hedge fund’s liquidator, chose Sotheby’s to auction Three Arrows Capital’s NFTs, it promised to maximize the money raised with a series of auctions throughout the summer. It has remained true to this commitment by selling the “Grails” collection – “grails” being NFTs that maintain value – in strategic slices.

THE first seven NFTs, which were sold by Sotheby’s in May as part of the Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day auction, all exceeded their high pre-sale estimates, fetching more than $2.4 million. In recent weeks, another group of “Grails” works have been privately sold by Sotheby’s, bringing in another $3 million and pushing the total north of $6 million.

Matt DesLauriers, Subscapes #198 (2021). Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.

In addition to its crypto business, Three Arrows Capital has set out to amass a large collection of NFTs with a particular eye for fundamental generative works. In February, Teneo posted a review which listed over 300 lit NFTs for sale. To date, Sotheby’s has sold works by some of the leading creators of generative digital art, including Tyler Hobbs, Dmitri Cherniak and Larva Labs.

Although the latest edition of the sale will include other works by Hobbs And Chernyak– Teneo’s review lists 30 Hobbs Fidenzas and 17 Chernyak Ringtones— this greatly expands the pool of artists.

Notable additions are Celestial landscapes by Matt DesLauriers, works that evoke the contours of possible geographies with a fine brush, as well as pieces from Jeff Davis’ “Construction Token” series in which monochromatic works, somewhat reminiscent of Mondrian’s crossed straight line work, are created by algorithm.

“Presenting this body of work in a live auction at Sotheby’s historic saleroom will showcase the range of generative art as an art form for the first time and bring digital art to a whole new audience of collectors,” Michael Bouhanna, Sotheby’s Head of Digital Art and NFTs, said in a statement.

Sotheby’s will pay tribute to the artist resale royalties in the “Grails” sale, a I promise he also did when adding its secondary market to Sotheby’s Metaverse.

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