Up in smoke: Artist Damien Hirst to burn 4,851 paintings as part of the NFT project

Nearly half of buyers of Hirst's The Currency Collection wanted to keep the NFT version.

The UK's richest living artist, Damien Hirst is set to burn thousands of his paintings in a non-fungible token (NFT) project called The Currency.

From September, visitors to Hirst's private museum in London will be able to see some of his 10,000 oil paintings depicting single dots he created in 2016 and linked to NFTs in 2021.

Purchasers of the $2,000 floor price NFTs were given the option to keep the token or exchange it for the physical paint. The original artwork will be engraved for those who choose to keep the NFT version.

The deadline for the decision was Wednesday, with nearly half of collectors, 4,851 wanting their paintings burned for digital edition NFTs, while 5,149 collectors opted to swap their NFTs for versions physical.

Currency

The year is over boom that was fast! and we all had to decide: NFT or physical? The final numbers are: 5149 physical and 4851 NFT (meaning I will need to burn 4851 matching physical offers). pic.twitter.com/xCUJ0gviZ0

The artwork will be set on fire daily while the event is running from September 9, until it closes during the London Frieze Week event in mid-October, when the remaining paintings go on sale. smoke. Commenting on Wednesday's result...