Sotheby’s, the renowned British auction house, has provided an update on the highly anticipated Part 1 auction of “GRAILS,” a collection of notable NFTs amassed by the now-insolvent Three Arrows Capital (3AC) corporation.
In a recent tweet, Sotheby’s announced the successful conclusion of the auction, which took place during the Sotheby’s Contemporary Day Auction and surpassed all expectations.
The auction featured seven digital artworks from some of the most influential artists in the Web3 space — including CryptoPunk, Tyler Hobb, and Larva Labs.
What made this auction particularly noteworthy was that each NFT artwork exceeded its high estimate, leading to a total sale of $2,482,850.
Tyler Hobb’s ‘Fidenza #725’ fetched an impressive $1,016,000, while the fully on-chain work by @_deafbeef sold for $241,300. The 24 x 24 pixel, 8-bit-style CryptoPunk #1326 was sold for $165,100.
Other notable sales included the red background, Ringers #194, which sold for $152,400, and Ringers #375, which fetched $95,250. Tyler Hobb’s ‘Fidenza #861′ was sold for $241,300, and Larva Labs’ beautiful code-based generative art, Autoglyph #187, reached a final price of $571,500.
Sotheby’s decision to auction the GRAILS NFT collection came after Teneo — a global advisory firm hired to oversee the liquidation of 3AC — announced plans to auction the extensive NFT collection amassed by the now-insolvent Singapore-based cryptocurrency hedge fund.
The GRAILS collection is widely regarded as the most iconic collection of digital artworks assembled thus far.
Sotheby’s has already demonstrated its commitment to digital art and NFTs, having hosted several successful auctions and sales in this space. In 2021, the auction house launched Sotheby’s Metaverse, an exclusive online platform dedicated to rare NFTs. Additionally, in August 2022, Sotheby’s partnered with Tiffany Dubin to present the groundbreaking phygital NFT jewelry auction, “Art as Jewelry as Art.”